THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

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A  ME  UK' AN    O( 'CITATION 


THE 

LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

AND  THE   EXPLORATION 

EARLY  HISTORY  AND 

BUILDING    OF 

THE  WEST 

BY 

RIPLEY   HITCHCOCK 


With  Illustrations 
and  Maps 


BOSTON,  U.S.A. 
&  COMPANY,  PUBLISHERS 
9Ul)enmtm 
1904 


COl'VKKiHT,  1903 

BY   RIPLEY   HITCHCOCK 


ALL   KIGHTS   RESERVED 


.or- 


TO 

M.  W.  H. 


INTRODUCTION 

In  the  year  1803  the  United  States  bought 
from  France  the  greater  part  of  our  country 
lying  between  the  Mississippi  River  and  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  The  area  acquired  con- 
tained nearly  a  million  square  miles.  This 
"Louisiana  Purchase"  has  been  called  an 
event  "  worthy  to  rank  with  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  and  the  formation  of 
the  Constitution." 

The  price  of  the  empire  which  we  gained  in 
1803  was  $15,000,000.  This  seems  a  large 
amount  even  in  this  day  of  the  easy  handling 
of  millions,  but  the  taxable  wealth  of  the  Lou- 
isiana territory  to-day  is  more  than  four  hun- 
dred times  the  purchase  money.  In  whole  or 
in  part  fourteen  states  and  territories  have 
been  formed  in  the  area  which  was  bought, 
and  there  are  over  fifteen  million  people  within 
its  borders. 


vi  INTRODUCTION 

These  are  impressive  facts  and  they  invite 
questions  as  to  what  the  Louisiana  territory 
was  and  how  we  happened  to  secure  it.  The 
answers  tell  a  curious  story,  full  of  happen- 
ings so  strange  that  they  have  the  quality  of 
romance.  In  the  sixteenth  century  the  Span- 
iards, first  of  white  men  to  penetrate  Louisi- 
ana, might  have  occupied  and  perhaps  have 
held  it  for  at  least  two  centuries  and  a  half, 
but  they  were  lured  away  by  the  gold  and  sil- 
ver of  Mexico  and  South  America.  Later  there 
were  disasters  near  home,  and  always  there  was 
their  own  incapacity  in  colonization. 

Next  came  the  French,  descending  from  the 
north  and  holding  Louisiana  until  their  power 
on  this  continent  was  broken  at  the  fall  of 
Quebec  in  1759.  Four  years  later  France 
ceded  Louisiana  to  Spain.  After  our  Revolu- 
tion England  yielded  us  a  boundary  on  the 
Great  Lakes,  the  Mississippi,  and  the  thirty- 
first  degree.  She  promised  also  the  free  navi- 
gation of  the  Mississippi.  But  this  promise 
Spain,  holding  the  river's  mouth,  refused  to 
sanction,  and  as  American  pioneers  pressed 


INTRODUCTION  vii 

westward  across  the  AUeghenies  and  sought 
the  natural  route  to  a  market  afforded  by  the 
water  ways,  this  refusal  became  a  matter  of 
supreme  moment. 

There  followed  a  critical  period  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  West.  In  1790  the  possibility  of 
a  war  between  England  and  Spain  led  Pitt  to 
consider  a  seizure  of  New  Orleans.  A  little 
later  France,  always  regretting  the  loss  of  Lou- 
isiana, employed  the  French  minister  Genet 
to  use  the  discontent  of  our  frontiersmen  as 
a  means  of  wresting  Louisiana  and  Florida 
from  Spain.  Later  still  France's  efforts  to 
regain  Louisiana  became  successful  under  the 
powerful  guidance  of  Napoleon.  His  plans 
were  laid  for  occupation.  They  were  checked 
by  the  fbgro  revolt  in  San  Domingo  and  the 
prospect  of  war  with  England. 

Meantime  the  West  was  ablaze,  and  Presi- 
dent Jefferson  sent  Monroe  as  commissioner 
to  Paris  to  secure  New  Orleans  and  the 
Floridas  and  make  clear  the  way  to  the  sea. 
The  instructions  of  Monroe  and  Livingston 
were  limited  to  a  strip  of  seacoast.  But 


viii  INTKODUCTION 

Napoleon  changed  his  mind.  He  offered 
them  the  whole  vast  area  of  Louisiana,  and 
thus  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  we  acquired 
Louisiana  from  France  even  before  possession 
had  formally  passed  to  France  from  Spain. 

What  wras  bought  was  for  the  most  part 
a  wilderness.  How  this  wilderness  was  ex- 
plored is  told  in  the  second  part  of  this 
volume  in  an  abridged  version  of  the  journals 
of  Lewis  and  Clark,  the  classical  explorers  of 
the  West. 

This  outline  of  the  first  great  American 
expedition  into  the  far  West  and  across  the 
continent  is  followed  by  sketches  of  the  jour- 
neys of  Pike,  Colter,  Hunt,  Wyeth,  Prince 
Maximilian  of  Wied,  Bonneville,  Fremont, 
and  others,  —  soldiers,  traders,  scientists, 
makers  of  the  old  trails,  and  pioneers  of 
the  greatest  of  river  routes,  the  Missouri- 
Mississippi.  This  third  division  of  the  story 
naturally  includes  the  American  fur  trade,  as 
well  as  the  trails  and  water  routes  of  the 
West.  These  explorers,  trappers,  and  traders 
made  the  early  American  history  of  Louisiana, 


INTKODUCTION  ix 

but  long  before  them  were  the  eras  of  Span- 
iards like  Coronado,and  Frenchmen  like  Father 
Marquette,  La  Salle,  and  the  Verendryes. 

The  waning  of  the  fur  trade's  supremacy 
toward  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century 
was  followed  by  discoveries  of  mineral  wealth, 
by  the  pressure  of  settlement,  by  railroad 
building,  by  the  cattle  industry,  and  by  other 
factors  in  the  earlier  building  of  the  West 
which  are  sketched  in  the  fourth  part  of  this 
narrative.  With  the  later  political  organiza- 
tion and  giant  growth  of  the  old  Louisiana 
territory  within  comparatively  recent  years 
this  history  deals  only  in  a  summary  of  facts. 

Since  the  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  afford 
a  continuous  and  very  simple  narrative,  it 
has  not  seemed  necessary  or  wise  to  enter  at 
length  into  the  diplomatic  and  political  his- 
tory of  the  purchase  of  Louisiana.  That  story 
may  be-  read  in  the  first  and  second  volumes 
of  Henry  Adams's  "  History  of  the  United 
States  of  America"  and  in  McMaster's  "His- 
tory of  the  People  of  the  United  States."  The 
French  side  of  the  history  is  emphasized  in 


X  INTRODUCTION 

Dr.  J.  K.  Hosmer's  popular  "History  of  the 
Louisiana  Purchase."  Many  other  references 
will  be  found  throughout  this  volume. 

There  seems  to  be  no  single  book  which 
tells  the  story  of  the  West  succinctly  and 
includes  the  \vork  of  the  Spanish  and  French 
pioneers,  and  also  accounts  of  the  various 
phases  of  American  exploration  and  of  the 
typical  figures  and  aspects  of  the  Western 
formative  periods.  It  is  hoped  that  this  vol- 
ume, in  spite  of  its  modest  character,  may 
afford  a  certain  comprehensiveness  which  will 
l)e  of  convenience  and  of  value  to  students  of 
the  earlier  history  of  the  West  between  the 
Mississippi  and  the  mountains. 

I  desire  to  express  my  sense  of  obligation 
to  my  friends,  Professor  John  Bach  McMaster 
and  George  Parker  Winship,  Esq.,  for  their 
kindness  in  reading  portions  of  the  proofs. 
I  wish  also  to  acknowledge  the  aid  of  Mr. 
Percy  Waller  of  the  Lenox  Library,  New 
York,  in  reading  the  proofs  and  in  preparing 

the  index. 

R.  H. 


CONTEXTS 

PART  I 
DISCOVERY  AND  ACQUISITION 

THE   SPANISH   AND  FRENCH  PERIODS  AND  THE 
PURCHASE 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  I.     THE  SPANISH  DISCOVERIES  ....        3 

What  the  Louisiana  Purchase  was.  Early  Spanish 
explorers.  Discovery  of  the  Mississippi.  Pineda, 
Cabeza  de  Vaca,  Coronado,  De  Soto,  and  Docampo. 
The  Spaniards  first  in  the  field.  Their  weakness  in 
colonization. 

CHAPTER  II.     THE  FRENCH  IN  LOUISIANA    ...      21 

Nicollet's  early  expeditions.  Saint  Lusson  claims 
the  West  for  France.  Marquette  and  Joliet  explore 
the  upper  Mississippi.  La  Salle  descends  to  the 
mouth.  The  French  claim  to  Louisiana.  Tonty  and 
other  pioneers.  The  founders  of  Xew  Orleans.  The 
search  for  a  way  to  the  western  ocean.  Le  Sueur 
and  other  explorers.  The  Verendryes  see  the  Rocky 
Mountains. 

xi 


xii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  III.     THE  FRENCH  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH 

CENTURY 34 

The  founding  of  New  Orleans.  Extent  of  French 
possessions.  The  beginnings  of  St.  Louis.  The  gate- 
way of  Louisiana.  Downfall  of  French  power. 
Louisiana  ceded  to  Spain.  American  and  English 
explorations.  Oregon  not  included  in  Louisiana. 

CHAPTER  IV.     THE  AMERICAN  WESTWARD  MOVE- 
MENT      45 

Advancing  beyond  the  Alleghenies.  Settlement 
rather  than  exploration  or  exploitation.  Experiences 
of  the  pioneers.  Their  way  to  the  sea  blocked  by 
Spanish  control  of  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi. 
How  the  Spaniards  ruled  New  Orleans. 

CHAPTER  V.     LOUISIANA'S  CRITICAL  PERIOD    .     .      54 

France  tries  to  regain  the  West.  Genet's  intrigues. 
Attitude  of  England  and  Spain.  Napoleon's  designs. 
Talleyrand's  plans  for  a  colonial  empire.  Louisiana 
ceded  to  France.  Napoleon's  plans  checked  by  Tous- 
saint's  rebellion  in  San  Domingo. 

CHAPTER  VI.     LOUISIANA  AN  ACTIVE  ISSUE     .     .      64 

The  East  slow  to  see  the  facts.  Foresight  of  Wash- 
ington, Jefferson,  and  Hamilton.  A  critical  period. 
Spanish  exactions.  The  river  closed.  Popular  agita- 
tion. The  West  ready  for  war.  Jefferson  resolves  to 
buy  New  Orleans  and  the  Floridas.  Monroe  appointed 
commissioner.  Livingston's  work  in  Paris.  Talley- 
rand's startling  proposition.  How  Napoleon  made  his 
purpose  known.  A  family  quarrel  in  a  bath-room. 


CONTENTS  xiii 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  VII.  THE  PURCHASE  ARRANGED  ...  76 

Closing  the  bargain.  The  terms  of  payment.  What 
was  bought.  Questions  as  to  West  Florida.  The  news 
in  the  United  States.  Federalist  opposition.  Debates 
over  the  right  to  buy  and  rule  foreign  territory.  The 
treaty  ratified.  Provisions  for  government. 

CHAPTER  VIII.     TRANSFER  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES      86 

Louisiana  still  in  Spain's  hands.  Delivery  to  France. 
Cession  by  France  to  the  United  States.  A  country 
without  government.  Congress  gives  the  President 
power.  Importance  of  the  precedents.  The  territory 
divided.  A  last  foreign  invasion. 


PART  II 
THE  LEWIS  AND  CLARK  EXPEDITION 

CHAPTER  IX.     EXPLORING  LOUISIANA 97 

An  unknown  interior.  Jefferson's  early  interest 
in  exploration.  Ledyard's  vain  attempt.  Jefferson 
selects  Lewis  and  Clark.  Who  they  were.  Their  in- 
structions. The  uncertainty  as  to  their  route. 

CHAPTER  X.     PREPARING  FOR  THE  JOURNEY     .     .    106 

An  uninformed  Spaniard.  A  company  of  picked 
men.  Some  curious  supplies.  The  journal  of  the 
expedition. 

CHAPTER  XI.     STARTING  FOR  THE  WILDERNESS    .    Ill 

Trappers  and  Indians.  Across  Missouri.  The  first 
sight  of  buffalo.  Turning  northward.  A  council  with 
the  Indians  near  Council  Bluffs.  An  odd  way  of  fish- 
ing. A  country  full  of  game. 


xiv  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XII.  IN  SOUTH  DAKOTA 120 

A  haunted  mountain.  Among  the  Sioux.  A  curious 
fraternity.  Some  new  animals.  Trouble  with  the 
Tetons.  The  first  meeting  with  the  grizzly  bear. 
Reaching  the  Arikara  Indians.  The  approach  of  cold 
weather. 

CHAPTER  XIII.     AT  THE  MANDAN  VILLAGES    .     .128 

The  winter  camp.  Hunting  the  buffalo.  The  journey 
onward.  Finding  the  Yellowstone  River.  Adventures 
with  grizzly  bears.  Hunting  in  Montana. 

CHAPTER  XIV.     ACROSS  MONTANA 137 

Discovery  of  the  Musselshell.  The  first  glimpse  of 
the  Rockies.  A  buffalo  charges  the  camp.  A  narrow 
escape.  At  the  Great  Falls  of  the  Missouri.  A  difficult 
portage.  Reaching  the  Three  Forks  of  the  Missouri. 
In  an  unknown  country. 

CHAPTER  XV.      THROUGH    THE    ROCKIES    TO    THE 

PACIFIC 14C 

Ascending  the  Jefferson.  Reaching  the  Great  Divide. 
Some  friendly  Indians.  Sacajawea  meets  old  acquaint- 
ances. Hardships  and  disappointments.  Struggling 
across  the  mountains.  Among  the  Nez  Percys.  On 
toward  the  sea.  Passing  the  cataracts  of  the  Columbia. 
The  first  glimpse  of  the  sea. 

CHAPTER  XVI.     ON  THE  PACIFIC  SLOPE  ....    159 

The  winter  camp.  Peculiarities  of  the  Clatsop  Indians. 
A  scarcity  of  supplies.  Turning  homeward.  Sur- 
mounting the  cascades.  Journeying  by  land.  Trouble- 
some Indians.  Living  on  dog  flesh.  A  search  for  their 
horses.  Indian  cooking.  Suffering  of  the  explorers. 


CONTENTS  xv 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XVII.     ACROSS  THE  MOUNTAINS   .     .     .    171 

A  rough  mountain  road.  Dividing  the  party.  An 
adventure  with  a  grizzly.  Fighting  with  Indians.  An 
accident  to  Captain  Lewis.  His  indomitable  courage. 
Passing  the  Great  Falls  of  the  Missouri.  Lewis  over- 
takes Captain  Clark. 

CHAPTER  XVIII.     CAPTAIN  CLARK'S  ADVENTURES    178 

Crossing  the  Yellowstone.  The  last  glimpse  of  the 
Rockies.  Buffalo  and  bears.  Reaching  the  Missouri. 
Attacked  by  mosquitoes.  Pryor  loses  the  horses. 
Bitten  by  a  wolf.  The  whole  party  reunited. 

CHAPTER  XIX.     ON  THE  WAY  HOME 185 

At  the  Mandan  villages  again.  Big  White  accom- 
panies the  explorers.  Colter  remains  in  the  wilder- 
ness. His  subsequent  discovery  of  Yellowstone  Park. 
Parting  with  the  faithful  squaw.  Descending  the 
river.  The  arrival  at  St.  Louis.  The  news  in  Wash- 
ington. The  later  life  of  Lewis  and  Clark. 


PART  III 
THE  EXPLORATION  OF  THE  WEST 

CHAPTER  XX.     PIKE'S  EXPLORATIONS 199 

Ascending  the  Mississippi.  A  second  expedition 
westward.  Hostile  Spanish  influence.  Into  Colorado. 
The  first  glimpse  of  Pike's  Peak.  On  the  upper 
Arkansas.  Disappointment  and  privation.  In  Spanish 
territory.  Captured  by  the  Spaniards.  Pike's  return 
and  death. 


xvi  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XXI.     ROUTES  OF  EXPLORATION    .     .     .    208 

The  great  water  ways.  Importance  of  the  Missouri. 
The  Santa  FC",  Overland,  and  Oregon  trails.  The  fur 
trade  the  chief  industry.  Its  effect  on  exploration. 

CHAPTER  XXII.     TYPICAL  PATHFINDERS      .     .     .    226 

Trade  seeking  the  Northwest.  Hunt  and  the  "  over- 
land Astorians."  Ashley  and  Wyeth.  Bonneville's 
journeys.  Explorations  by  Fremont. 


PART  IV 
THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  WEST 

CHAPTER  XXIII.     A  FORMATIVE  PERIOD      .     .     .    241 

Influences  of  the  westward  movement.  A  time  of 
expansion.  Development  of  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
Influences  upon  upper  Louisiana.  Types  of  the 
middle  period.  The  soldier's  work  in  the  West. 
Labors  of  missionaries.  Whitman's  journey  and  its 
real  purpose. 

CHAPTER  XXIV.     THE  COMING  OF  INDUSTRIES     .    255 

The  search  for  mineral  wealth.  Louisiana  ignored 
for  California.  Later  developments.  The  day  of  the 
"pony  express."  The  great  cattle  industry.  Open- 
ing of  the  interior  by  the  first  transcontinental  railroad. 

CHAPTER  XXV.     PERMANENT  OCCUPATION  .     .     .    270 

The  Free  Soil  issue.  Kansas  and  Nebraska.  Dis- 
tribution of  public  lands.  Louisiana  in  the  Civil 
War.  A  glance  at  later  development.  Political  and 
economic  consequence  of  the  old  Louisiana  Purchase. 


CONTENTS  xvii 

PAGE 

APPENDIX  I 287 

Treaty  of  Purchase  between  the  United  States  and 
the  French  Republic. 

A  Convention  between  the  United  States  of  America 

and  the  French  Republic 293 

APPENDIX  II.     THE  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE  OF  TO- 
DAY   296 

Its  vast  area.  Statistical  summary  of  the  states  and 
territories  formed  from  the  Purchase.  Fifteen  mil- 
lions of  people.  Wealth  four  hundred  times  the  pur- 
chase money.  The  empire  which  we  gained. 

LOUISIANA 296 

ARKANSAS 300 

COLORADO 303 

INDIAN  TERRITORY 307 

IOWA 309 

KANSAS 312 

MINNESOTA 316 

MISSOURI 320 

MONTANA 323 

NEBRASKA 325 

NORTH  DAKOTA 328 

OKLAHOMA 330 

SOUTH  DAKOTA 333 

WYOMING 335 

INDEX                                                                                 .  339 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  MAPS 

PAGE 

American  Occupation Frontispiece 

Expansion  Map  of  the  United  States Facing  3 

"  Hunch-backed  Cow " Facing  8 

Pueblo  of  the  Zuiii  Indians Facing  10 

De  Soto's  First  View  of  the  Mississippi  River 13 

Be  Soto's  Expedition  (1539-1542) 15 

Old  Spanish  Gateway  at  St.  Augustine 17 

Spanish  Explorations 19 

La  Salle 23 

Louis  XI\r,  King  of  France 25 

Autograph  of  Jolliet 26 

Father  Marquette  (from  Trentenove's  statue  in  the  Capitol 

at  Washington) Facing  26 

La  Salle  at  the  Mouth  of  the  Mississippi 28 

Autograph  of  Tonty 29 

Map  of  the  Verendryes'  Route Facing  32 

Autograph  of  Le  Moyne  d'Iberville 35 

Autograph  of  Bienville 36 

Autograph  of  John  Law 36 

New  Orleans  in  1719 37 

The  Royal  Flag  of  France 39 

Montcalm 40 

George  Rogers  Clark 46 

George  Rogers  Clark's  Expedition  to  capture  Vincennes 

in  1779 Facing  46 

Anthony  Wayne 47 

A  Flatboat  on  the  Ohio 50 

xix 


XX  ILLUSTKATIONS  AND  MAPS 

PAGE 

Autograph  of  Genet 55 

Autograph  of  Talleyrand 57 

Autograph  of  Toussaint  L'Ouverture 61 

Alexander  Hamilton 65 

Livingston's  Autograph 67 

James  Monroe 68 

Napoleon  as  First  Consul Facing  72 

Thomas  Jefferson 81 

Wilkinson's  Autograph 88 

The  Cabildo,  or  City  Hall Facing  88 

Claiborne's  Autograph 89 

Andrew  Jackson  riding  along  the  Lines  after  the  Battle  of 

New  Orleans 92 

Bad  Lands  of  Dakota 98 

Meriwether  Lewis  (from  the  drawing  by  St.  Merain)  Facing  100 

William  Clark Facing  104 

Washington  One  Hundred  Years  ago 107 

French  Fort  at  Saint  Louis Facing  108 

In  the  Days  of  the  Buffalo  Hunter 115 

Totem  of  the  Sioux 121 

Calumet,  or  Pipe  of  Peace 122 

Stone  Hatchet 124 

Nature's  Fortifications  (from  the  plan  drawn  by  Lewis  and 

Clark) Facing  126 

A  Mandan  Hut 128 

Mandan  Indians  using  "Bull  Boats"  made  of  Buffalo 

Hide Facing  130 

Interior  of  Deserted  Mandan  Hut 131 

Map  of  Lewis  and  Clark  Pass 148 

Mouth  of  the  Columbia  River  (from  the  plan  drawn  by 

Lewis  and  Clark) Facing  160 

Multnomah  Falls Facing  164 

Meriwether  Lewis Facing  174 

A  Mandan  Chief Facing  186 

Pike's  Peak  Trail  at  Minnehaha  Falls 205 


ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  MAPS          xxi 


Zebulon  M.  Pike Facing  206 

Emigrant  Train  crossing  the  Plains 209 

Pike's  Peak  from  Pike's  Peak  Avenue,  Colorado  Springs 

Facing  210 

Whitman's  Journey  to  save  his  Mission 252 

Sutter's  Mill Facing  256 

Indians  attacking  the  "  Overland  Mail " 258 

A  "  Pony  Express  "  Rider 260 

Completion  of  the  First  Transcontinental  Railroad    Facing  268 


LOUISIANA 


PART  I 
DISCOVERY   AND    ACQUISITION 

THE  SPANISH  AND  FRENCH  PERIODS 

AND 

THE  PURCHASE 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  SPANISH  DISCOVEREBS 

What  the  Louisiana  Purchase  was.  Early  Spanish  explorers. 
Discovery  of  the  Mississippi.  Pineda,  Cabeza  de  Vaca, 
Coronado,  De  Soto,  and  Docampo.  The  Spaniards  first  in 
the  field.  Their  weakness  in  colonization. 

At  the  opening  of  the  year  1803  the  terri- 
tory of  the  United  States  was  bounded  on 
the  west  by  the  Mississippi  River.1  In  April 
of  that  year  a  treaty  was  signed  in  Paris  by 
which  nearly  a  million  square  miles  west  of 
the  Mississippi,  stretching  from  the  mouth  of 
the  river  to  British  America,  was  purchased 
from  France  for  $15,000,000,  and  the  total 
area  of  our  country  was  more  than  doubled. 
This  great  event  is  known  in  history  as  the 

1  On  the  south  the  boundary  was  the  thirty-first  parallel 
of  latitude  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Apalachicola,  down 
the  middle  of  that  river  to  the  Flint,  thence  to  the  head  of 
St.  Marys  River,  and  down  the  latter  to  the  sea. 

3 


4  LOUISIANA   PURCHASE 

Louisiana  Purchase.  By  this  treaty,  which 
was  signed  by  Robert  R.  Livingston  and  James 
Monroe  representing  the  United  States,  and 
Barbe-Marbois  representing  the  Republic  of 
France,  Napoleon  Bonaparte  —  then  the  First 
Consul  of  France  and  afterward  Emperor, — 
ceded  to  the  United  States  the  territory 
which  now  contains  Louisiana,  Arkansas, 
Kansas,  Missouri,  Iowa,  Nebraska,  South 
Dakota,  North  Dakota,  Montana,  Wyoming, 
Indian  Territory,  and  parts  of  Colorado  and 
Oklahoma.1 

1  Much  attention  has  been  given  by  historians  to  the  ques- 
tion whether  or  not  Texas  was  or  should  have  been  included 
in  the  Louisiana  Purchase.  Henry  Adams  and  Professor 
Edward  Channing  are  among  the  more  conspicuous  advo- 
cates of  Texas  as  a  part  of  Louisiana,  and  Professor  A.  C. 
McLaughlin  declares  that  France  "  had  good  ground  for 
claiming  the  Texas  country  perhaps  even  to  the  Rio  Grande." 
Schouler  and  II.  II.  Bancroft  take  a  contrary  view,  and  the 
thesis  that  Texas  was  not  a  part  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  is 
ably  maintained  in  an  interesting  monograph  by  Professor 
John  R.  Ficklen.  This  discussion  is  not  essential  to  the 
present  narrative,  since  the  United  States,  after  claiming  the 
territory  as  far  west  not  only  as  the  Rio  Bravo  but  even  to 
the  Rio  Grande,  yielded  the  point  in  1819,  when  by  treaty 
with  Spain  the  Floridas  were  acquired  and  Texas  abandoned. 


THE  SPANISH  DISCOVERERS  5 

/•• 

It  is  easy  now  to  see  that  this  great  addi- 
tion to  our  country  was  of  incalculable  impor- 
tance. ,  At  the  time,  however,  the  significance 
of  the  purchase,  which  has  been  called  a  turn- 
ing point  in  our  history,  was  not  realized. .  We 
can  understand  the  situation  better  by  showing 
what  had  been  learned  up  to  1803  of  the  vast 
region  which  Jefferson  and  Napoleon  added  to 
the  United  States. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  Louisiana  ter- 
ritory was  unexplored.  In  one  sense  this  is 
true,  but  we  shall  find  that  as  a  matter  of  fact 
many  white  men  had  penetrated  this  wilder- 
ness. The  first  were  Spaniards  who  followed 
after  Columbus.  The  purpose  of  Columbus, 
and,  for  a  time,  of  others  after  him,  was  to 
find  a  water  way  to  Cathay,  or  China,  and  the 
Spice  Islands  by  the  westward  route,  and  to 
secure  their  rich  trade.  The  extent  of  Amer- 
ica was  so  little  understood  that  much  time  was 
spent  in  trying  to  find  a  passage  through  or 
around  our  continent.  Cipango,  as  Japan  was 
called,  was  supposed  to  lie  much  farther  east ; 
indeed,  in  some  old  maps  it  seems  included 


6  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

within  our  boundaries.  It  was  the  Spanish 
pioneer  explorers  of  the  sixteenth  century  who 
first  penetrated  western  North  America  and 
discovered  the  vast  extent  of  our  country. 

It  was  in  a  search  for  this  water  route  to 
the  west  that,  in  1519,  Don  Diego  Velasquez, 
the  Spanish  governor  of  Cuba,  sent  out  four 
caravels  commanded  by  Don  Alonzo  Alvarez 
de  Pineda.  The  little  fleet  finally  sailed  west- 
ward across  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  until  Pineda 
met  Cortes,  the  conqueror  of  Mexico,  and  his 
followers,  who  claimed  that  territory.  The 
point  of  chief  interest  to  us  is  that  on  his  return 
Pineda  found  the  mouth  of  a  great  river,  which 
he  explored  for  a  few  leagues  and  named  the 
Rio  de  Espiritu  Santo.  This  was  the  Missis- 
sippi. We  may  think  of  Pineda,  therefore,  as 
the  first  white  man  to  approach  the  confines 
of  the  territory  known  later  as  Louisiana. 

A  few  years  later,  in  1527,  another  Spaniard 
reached  Louisiana,  and  the  story  of  this  man, 
Alvar  Nunez  Cabeza  de  Vaca,1  is  of  peculiar 

1  The  "  Relation  "  of  Cabeza  de  Vaca's  journey,  by  him- 
self, \vas  first  published  at  Zamora,  Spain,  in  1542.  The 


THE  SPANISH  DISCOVERERS  7 

historical  interest.  He  was  treasurer  of  an 
expedition  sent  from  Spain  to  Florida.  With 
his  comrades  he  struggled  across  Florida  to  the 
Gulf,  and  then,  sorely  tried  by  their  hardships, 
they  built  rude  boats  as  best  they  could.  Their 
horses  were  killed  for  food.  The  manes  and 
tails  and  some  vegetable  fibers  were  twisted 
into  ropes ;  rough  tools  and  nails  were  wrought 
out  of  stirrups  and  spurs,  and  shirts  were  pieced 
together  for  sails.  Finally,  the  unhappy  fugi- 
tives put  to  sea  in  five  boats.  They  were 
ignorant  of  the  waters  and  the  coast,  but  they 
hoped  to  reach  the  Spanish  settlements  in 
Mexico.  After  a  time  they  passed  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi,  and  then  their  boats  were 
shattered  by  storms,  and  only  fifteen  men  lived 
to  be  cast  upon  an  island  west  of  the  mouth  of 
the  Mississippi,  which  they  aptly  termed  "  The 
Isle  of  Misfortunes." 

first  edition  of  Buckingham  Smith's  translation  appeared 
in  1851,  and  the  last,  after  his  death,  in  1871.  While  the 
translator's  notes  cannot  be  accepted  implicitly  in  the  light 
of  later  research,  this  translation  holds  a  place  of  peculiar 
distinction  in  our  early  history  as  the  first  presentation  in 
English  of  a  most  important  source  of  historical  knowledge. 


8  LOUISIANA  PUECHASE 

Of  this  remnant  all  but  four  were  slain 
by  the  Indians.  Cabeza  de  Vaca  himself  was 
taken  captive.  For  six  terrible  years  he  was 
held  by  his  savage  masters,  who  dwelt  in  east- 
ern Texas  and  western  Louisiana.  Sometimes 
he  was  forced  to  act  as  a  "  medicine  man." 
Again  he  was  sent  out  as  a  trader,  making 
long  journeys  as  far  north  as  the  Red  River 
country,  where,  it  is  believed,  he  was  the  first 
white  man  to  see  the  "hunch-backed  cows,"  as 
the  older  Spanish  writers  termed  the  buffalo. 
Finally,  at  some  point  west  of  the  Sabine  River 
in  Texas,  he  was  reunited  to  his  three  sur- 
viving comrades.  They  succeeded  in  escaping 
from  their  captors,  and  by  using  the  rites  of 
"  medicine  men,"  with  which  they  mingled 
"  earnest  prayers  to  the  true  God,"  they  pre- 
served themselves  from  harm  at  the  hands  of 
other  Indians. 

Slowly  and  painfully  they  toiled  westward 
across  Texas,  hoping  to  reach  the  Spaniards  in 
Mexico.  They  seem  to  have  crossed  the  Rio 
Pecos  near  its  junction  with  the  Rio  Grande,  and 
then  crossing  the  latter  river  to  have  journeyed 


• 


IBS    SING VLARITEZ 

trtcefe  flaride  {y  la.  rimer e  de  Palme p  trtttuent 
**IUfrffS  e$ec"  ^  ^ei  mtnftrueufti  :entn  Icftuet 
'  /« Ian f tut  >«r  ">»f  cftcce  degt  ands  taartttux ,  for-  $} 


tans  comes  lon^uesfeHlcment  il}»  pic  ,  CrfirleJoi  •• 
~\nt  tttmutur  on  emtnence,came  >»  ckamtdu:  le  pail  V 
longpartout  le  corps,tluyuel!<i  coitleur  idpproehefirt  ,f 
de  celle  d"\ne  mMtfwut  ,  c?"  enctres  I'tftflw  ccfuy  -i 
jui  ejt  dfffituls  le  mento.Lon  en  amena  ~\ncfvu  dettx% 
touf  "Vifs  en  Efj>d^ne,de  /">»  defyteh  fay"\tit  Upetn  / 
(f  ntn  a»tr£cbojetC?~  rij  pturent~}imt  long  temps,  • 
Cejt  Animal  atnfe  yue  Ian  dit,eft  pcrpetue  lennemy  du  V 
cheuttltZme  lepettt  enJurerpres  tie  luy.  De  la  fieri-  "V 
Cap  Jc    de  tirantatt  promenttire  de  liaxe  ,Je  trouue  yttelquc  .jjhl  I 
Baxc.      jiftjte  rtuiere^u  les  efilaues  ~}ontprfcher  bftitres,  yui  'ti* 

portent  perles  .Or  debtiit  que  lommei~Ven»f  tufaiie  lit,  ; 
Huitrcs  *        .  *  i      ir  a       i    i    • 

portans     "*  *p  toucher  la  ctuettien  aes  btutrei  ,  ne  t 


pcrlcs.    liter  far  y*t  Imojen  Us  paries  enfint  tirt'fs,unt  <wX 

' 


Tin:   BITKALO 


THE  SPANISH  DISCOVEKERS  9 

through  the  Mexican  states  of  Chihuahua  and 
Sonora.  Turning  southward  they  finally,  in 
May,  1536,  reached  Culiacan  in  Sinaloa,  the 
northern  outpost  of  Spanish  settlement.  Over 
two  thousand  miles  were  traversed  by  these 
fugitives  in  this  flight,  which  restored  them 
to  their  countrymen  eight  years  after  their  ill- 
starred  expedition  landed  in  Florida. 

With  the  exception  of  their  passage  by  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi  and  some  wanderings 
in  Louisiana  and  to  the  north,  they  had  had 
little  to  do  with  the  actual  territory  of  the 
Purchase,1  but  the  stories  which  these  survivors 
brought  back  made  others  eager  to  explore 
the  mysterious  interior  of  the  New  World. 

One  story  which  appealed  particularly  to 
the  imaginations  of  the  Spaniards  was  a  tale 
which  Cabeza  de  Vaca  had  heard  of  the  Seven 
Cities  of  Cibola,  to  the  north,  which  were  de- 
scribed as  full  of  treasures.  In  search  of  these 
cities  a  fearless  priest,  Fray  Marcos  de  Nizza, 
started  from  Sinaloa  in  1539,  taking  with  him 
one  of  Cabeza  de  Vaca's  companions,  a  negro 

1  That  is,  of  course,  eliminating  Texas. 


10  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

named  Estevanico.  He  found  no  treasures,  but 
he  reached  the  "  cities,"  which  are  believed  to 
have  been  the  pueblos  or  villages  of  the  Zuiii 
Indians  near  the  present  Zuiii  village  in  west- 
ern New  Mexico. 

When  he  returned  and  reported  that  he  had 
actually  seen  certain  strange  towns  to  the 
north,  there  was  a  stir  among  the  Spaniards, 
always  tireless  in  the  quest  for  treasure.  The 
viceroy  of  Mexico,  Mendoza,  promptly  organ- 
ized an  expedition  under  the  command  of 
Coronado,  governor  of  New  Galicia,  to  take 
possession  of  this  rich  country.  He  started  in 
15-40,  captured  the  Zuiii  villages  and  wintered 
in  New  Mexico,  where  he  heard  a  marvelous 
tale  which  brought  destruction  to  many  of  the 
early  treasure  seekers.  This  was  the  legend  of 
Quivira,  a  wonderful  city  of  gold.  Lured  by 
this  golden  myth,  Coronado  crossed  Indian  Ter- 
ritory and  pressed  on  to  northeastern  Kansas.1 

1  General  Simpson  believed  that  Coronado  reached  a  point 
somewhere  in  the  eastern  half  of  the  border  country  of  Kan- 
sas and  Nebraska.  Bandelier  placed  the  main  seat  of  the 
Quiviras  "  in  northeastern  Kansas,  beyond  the  Arkansas 
Biver  and  more  than  100  miles  northeast  of  Great  Bend." 


PUEBLO  OF  TIIK  ZINI  INDIANS 
(From  a  photograph) 


THE  SPANISH  DISCOVEKEKS  11 

He  found  a  tribe  of  Indians  called  the  Qui- 
viras,  but  they  had  no  gold  and  knew  of  none, 
and  he  was  forced  to  make  his  painful  way 
back  empty-handed.  This  wonderful  journey 
of  Coronado  may  be  called  the  first  great 
exploration  within  the  Louisiana  territory. 

It  is  most  fortunate  that  narratives  of  this 
remarkable  expedition  have  come  down  to  us. 
The  best  of  these  was  written  by  Castaiieda, 
who  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  well-educated 
private  soldier  in  Coronado's  army.1 

A  journey  far  longer  and  more  perilous 
than  that  of  Coronado  originated  in  the  devo- 
tion of  the  brave  priest  Fray  Juan  de  Padilla, 
who  was  with  Coronado,  and  returned  to  min- 
ister to  the  Quiviras  accompanied  only  by  one 
soldier,  Andres  Docampo,  and  two  boys,  Lucas 
and  Sebastian.  The  good  priest  was  slain  in 
northeastern  Kansas.  Docampo  and  the  boys 

1 A  translation  of  this  narrative  follows  Mr.  George 
Parker  Winship's  critical  discussion  of  the  Coronado  expe- 
dition published  in  the  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology 
for  1892-1893.  "  The  Spanish  Pioneers,"  by  C.  F.  Lummis, 
offers  a  vivid  sketch  of  early  Spanish  exploration  and  con- 
quest throughout  the  Western  Hemisphere. 


12  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

wandered  over  the  plains  for  nine  heart-break- 
ing years,  sometimes  prisoners,  sometimes 
fugitives,  finally  reaching  the  Mexican  town  of 
Tampico  on  the  Gulf.  Their  journeyings  must 
have  covered  thousands  of  miles  of  Louisiana 
territory,  but  no  records  have  been  preserved.1 
At  the  same  time  that  Coronado  was  leading 
his  soldiers  eastward,  another  Spanish  officer 
was  struggling  from  Florida  towards  the  west. 
This  was  the  famous  Fernando  de  Soto,  gov- 
ernor of  Cuba,  wrho  was  commissioned  to  conquer 
the  unknown  territory  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
which  had  been  granted  to  Narvaez  by  a  royal 
patent.  De  Soto  sailed  from  Havana  in  1539 
and,  landing  his  force  of  nearly  six  hundred 
men  in  Florida,  fought  his  bloody  way  through 
Georgia  and  Alabama  and  on  to  the  Mississippi, 
which  he  crossed  at  Chickasaw  Bluff.  This 
was  in  1541,  and  De  Soto  was  the  first  white 
man  to  see  the  Mississippi  except  at  its  mouth." 

1  See  "  The  Spanish  Pioneers,"  by  C.  F.  Luiamis. 

2  There  has  been  much  historical  discussion  as  to  the  dis- 
covery of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  question  of  the  claims  of 
Pineda  in  1519,  of  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  -who  crossed  one  of  its 
mouths  in  1.12S.  and  of  De  Soto,  has  been  argued  at  length 


THE  SPANISH  DISCOVERERS 


18 


After  crossing  the  great  river  De  Soto  marched 
northward  to  Little  Prairie,  led  by  the  vague 


DE  SOTO'S  FIKST  Vn-:\v  OF  TIIK  MISSISSIPPI  RIVER 

tales  of  gold  which  so  often  lured  the  Spaniards 
to  an  evil  fate.  He  sent  out  expeditions,  one 

by  Rye  in  the  Ilakluyt  Society's  '•  Discovery  and  Conquest 
of  Florida,"  1S.~>1.  See  Winsor's  •'  Xarrative  and  Critical 
History  of  America,"  Vol.  II,  ]>i>.  289--J92. 


14  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

of  which  marched  eight  days  to  the  north- 
west and  reached  the  open  prairies.  It  seems 
probable  that  De  Soto  approached  the  Mis- 
souri River,  although  he  learned  nothing  of  it. 

At  tliis  very  time,  in  the  summer  of  1541, 
De  Soto  and  his  starving  followers  must  have 
been  so  near  Coronado's  army  that  an  Indian 
runner  could  have  carried  a  message  from  one 
to  the  other  in  a  few  days.  Indeed,  Coronado 
heard  of  these  white  men  and  sent  a  messenger, 
who  failed  in  his  errand.  Thus,  in  the  first 
half  of  the  sixteenth  century  two  Spaniards, 
one  starting  from  Tampa  Bay  in  Florida  and 
the  other  from  the  Gulf  of  California,  practi- 
cally completed  a  journey  across  the  continent.1 

De  Soto's  wanderings  on  the  west  bank  of 
the  Mississippi  are  of  interest  here  chiefly 
because  he  entered  the  Louisiana  territory. 
He  met  with  little  save  disaster,  and  after  a 
bitter  winter  passed  on  a  branch  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, which  seems  to  have  been  the  Washita, 
he  started  southward  with  the  remnants  of 

1  Winsor's  "  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America," 
Vol.  II,  p.  292. 


THE  SPANISH  DISCOVEBEKS 


15 


his  force.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Red  River,  on 
May  21,  1542,  the  baffled  "conqueror"  died. 
Surrounded  as  his  survivors  were  by  hostile 
Indians,  they  dared  not  leave  his  body  in  a 
grave  lest  the  Indians  should  discover  it ;  so 


this  proud  Spanish  warrior  found  his  last  rest- 
ing place  beneath  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi. 
The  survivors,  led  by  Luis  de  Mosco9o,  at 
first  undertook  to  go  westward  in  the  hope  of 
reaching  their  countrymen  in  New  Spain,  and 
some  chroniclers  have  credited  them  with  so 


16  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

long  a  journey  across  the  plains  that  they 
came  within  sight  of  the  mountains.  But 
their  attempts  to  reach  their  friends  in  Mexico 
yielded  no  results,  and  they  made  their  pain- 
ful way  back  to  the  Mississippi.  There  they 
built  boats  and  descended  the  river.  They 
skirted  the  coast  of  Texas,  and  in  September, 
1543,  the  wretched  remnants  of  De  Soto's  once 
proud  expedition  reached  Tampico. 

Pineda  had  found  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  de 
Espiritu  Santo,  but  De  Soto  is  justly  remem- 
bered as  the  true  discoverer  of  the  Mississippi. 
On  this  discovery  was  based  an  early  claim  to 
Louisiana.  But  the  story  of  the  Spaniards  in 
North  America  was  very  different  from  their 
record  in  the  south,  where  Cortes  had  gained 
an  empire  by  his  conquest  of  Mexico  (1519- 
1521),  and  Pizarro  another  in  Peru  (1531— 
1534).  The  early  expeditions  of  the  Span- 
iards within  the  present  territory  of  the  United 
States  represented  even  larger  possibilities, 
as  they  were  the  first  comers  in  this  new  land. 

Pineda,  Coronado,  De  Soto,  and  other  Span- 
iards made  their  journeys  in  the  first  half 


THE  SPANISH  DISCOVERERS 


17 


of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  the  oldest  town 
in  the  United  States,  St.  Augustine,  Florida, 
was  founded  by  the  Spaniards  in  1565.  The 
Spaniards  had  sailed  by  the  shores  of  Virginia 
long  before  Raleigh  had  dreamed  of  settlement. 


OLD  SPANISH  GATEWAY  AT  ST.  AUGUSTINE 

It  was  not  until  1605  that  the  French  on 
the  north  founded  Port  Royal,  now  Annapolis, 
N.  S.,  which  was  followed  by  Quebec  in  ]608. 
It  was  not  until  1607  that  the  English  founded 
Jamestown,  in  Virginia,,  and  not  until  1620 
that  the  Pilgrims  made  their  way  to  Plym- 
outh. Thus  in  the  struggle  for  a  continent 


18  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

the  Spaniards  had  all  the  advantages  of 
priority,  and  they  might  have  held  North 
America.  But  Spanish  discovery  was  not  ac- 
companied by  the  qualities  which  have  wrought 
out  a  very  different  history  for  Anglo-Saxon 
expansion,  and  there  were  other  obstacles. 

Louisiana  lay  open  to  Spain  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  but  the  Spaniards,  like  other 
Europeans  of  their  time,  held  to  the  "  Bullion 
theory," — that  the  precious  metals  were  the 
only  form  of  wealth, — and  the  gold  and  silver 
of  Mexico  and  South  America  blinded  them 
to  the  opportunities  awaiting  them  in  the 
development  of  the  Mississippi  valley.  Fur- 
thermore, after  1570  Spam's  energies  were 
absorbed  in  attempts  to  suppress  Protestant- 
ism in  Europe  and  to  crush  the  revolting 
Netherlands.1  In  1588  Spain's  maritime 
power  was  crippled  by  England's  destruction 
of  the  Invincible  Armada. 

All  this  checked  a  career  in  the  New  World 
which,  continuing  as  it  began,  might  have 

1  See  "  The  Discovery  of  America,"  by  John  Fiske,  par- 
ticularly Chapter  XII. 


THE  SPANISH  DISCOVERERS 


19 


meant  a  warfare  against  heretics  in  Virginia 
and  New  England  like  that  which  stained  the 
early  annals  of  Florida.  It  might  have  meant 
also  an  assured  grasp  of  the  Mississippi  and 


SPANISH  EXPLORATIONS 

Louisiana.  But  Spain's  distraction  and  exhaus- 
tion gave  a  clear  field  for  the  English  settlers 
on  the  eastern  seaboard,  and  also  for  the  French 
who  came  from  the  north  to  explore  the  Missis- 
sippi and  claim  the  interior  of  our  country. 

The  seventeenth  century  found  Spain  sus- 
picious  and  uneasy,   but   for  the  most   part 


20  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

inactive  as  regards  Louisiana.  In  the  early 
eighteenth  century,  about  1716,  a  Spanish 
expedition  moved  eastward  from  Santa  Fe 
to  check  the  French  by  establishing  a  mili- 
tary post  in  the  upper  Mississippi  valley,  but 
it  came  to  a  disastrous  end.  So  far  as  the 
Louisiana  territory  is  concerned  the  brilliant 
beginnings  of  Spain  suffered  an  inglorious 
lapse.  AVe  owe  to  De  Yaca,  Coronado,  and 
De  Soto  the  amplest  knowledge  which  the 
sixteenth  century  afforded  of  the  interior  of 
North  America,  but  the  Spanish  desire  for 
conquest  and  gold  rather  than  real  coloni- 
zation and  development  proved  impotent  in 
the  end. 

Many  years  later  than  the  Spaniards  — 
not  until  the  seventeenth  century  —  came 
the  French,  adventurous,  impelled  by  pride 
of  country,  desirous  of  territory  and  of  trade, 
but  like  the  Spaniards  lacking  the  colonizing 
power  of  the  race  which  finally  dominated 
Louisiana. 


THE  FRENCH  IN  LOUISIANA 

Nicollet's  early  expeditions.  Saint  Lusson  claims  the  West  for 
France.  Marquette  and  Joliet  explore  the  upper  Missis- 
sippi. La  Salle  descends  to  the  mouth.  The  French  claim 
to  Louisiana.  Tonty  and  other  pioneers.  The  founders  of 
New  Orleans.  The  search  for  a  way  to  the  western  ocean. 
Le  Sueur  and  other  explorers.  The  Verendryes  see  the 
Rocky  Mountains. 

It  was  nearly  a  century  after  the  disastrous 
end  of  De  Soto's  journey  and  the  return  of 
Coronado's  expedition  before  the  first  repre- 
sentative of  the  New  France,  which  was  press- 
ing up  the  St.  Lawrence,  reached  a  tributary 
of  the  Mississippi.  This  was  Jean  Nicollet, 
a  French  interpreter  of  Three  Rivers,  whose 
journey  westward  as  far  as  Green  Bay  and  the 
Wisconsin  River  about  1G341  was  due  to  tales 
of  a  strange  people,  who,  it  was  held,  might 
be  the  Chinese.  This  Oriental  myth,  which 

1  As  to  the  question  of  date  see  AVinsor,  Vol.  TV,  p.  :><)!. 
21 


22  LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 

persisted  so  long,  was  not  shattered  by  Nicol- 
let's  discovery  that  these  "Orientals"  were 
really  Winnebago  Indians.  He  returned  be- 
lieving that  the  Wisconsin  River,  which  he 
claimed1  to  have  reached  and  descended  for 
a  distance,  had  borne  him  within  three  days' 
journey  of  the  sea. 

Tales  of  the  great  river,  the  "Mesipi"  of 
the  Sioux,  were  brought  back  by  adventurous 
French  traders  and  priests  in  the  years  that 
followed  Nicollet's  quest.  "  Through  what 
regions  did  it  flow?"  In  Parkman's  eloquent 
words,  "Whither  would  it  lead  them,  —  to  the 
South  Sea  or  the  Sea  of  Virginia,  to  Mexico, 
Japan  or  China  ?  The  problem  was  soon  to 
be  solved  and  the  mystery  revealed." 

Of  the  gallant  French  explorers  who  first 
penetrated  the  interior  of  our  country,  one  of 
the  bravest  and  deservedly  most  famous  was 
Robert  Cavelier,  born  at  Rouen  in  1643  and 

1  C.  W.  Butterfield's  "History  of  Discovery  by  Jean 
Nicollet,"  etc.  (Cincinnati,  1881),  indicates  that  Xicollet 
did  not  descend  the  Wisconsin.  He  was,  however,  the 
first  white  man  to  reach  Green  Bay. 


THE  FRENCH  IN  LOUISIANA 


23 


best  known  as  La  Salle.  At  the  age  of  twenty- 
three  he  came  to  Canada.  He  became  seignior 
of  an  estate  near  Montreal,  but  ambition,  love 
of  adventure,  an  ardor  for  discovery  and  con- 
quest soon  led 
him  to  the  ex- 
ploration of  the 
unknown  West. 
It  seems  certain 
that  in  1669  he 
journeyed  from 
Lake  Erie  to  a 
branch  of  the 
Ohio  and  de- 
scended at  least 
as  far  as  the 
falls  at  Louis- 
ville. But  a  more  glorious  journey  of  dis- 
covery was  yet  to  come. 

At  nearly  the  same  time  Jean  Talon, 
intendant  of  Canada,  was  making  the  first 
formal  move  in  the  great  game  which  was 
to  checkmate  England  and  Spain  by  a  French 
control  of  the  interior  that  would  confine 


LA  SALLE 


24  LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 

England  to  the  eastern  seaboard  and  hold  the 
Spaniards  at  bay  in  the  south  and  southwest. 
It  was  with  this  in  view  that  in  1670  he 
ordered  Daumont  de  Saint  Lusson  to  Lake 
Superior  to  take  possession  of  the  interior. 
It  was  early  in  May  that  the  French  soldiers 
and  priests  assembled  on  a  hill  near  the  foot 
of  the  Sault  Sainte  Marie,  surrounded  by 
wondering  Indians,  who  watched  them  raise 
a  cross  and  place  beside  it  a  post  bearing  the 
arms  of  France.  All  the  known  country  of 
the  Great  Lakes,  all  the  contiguous  countries 
discovered  and  undiscovered,  "bounded  on  the 
one  side  by  the  seas  of  the  North  and  of  the 
West,  and  on  the  other  by  the  South  Sea," 
were  claimed  by  Saint  Lusson,  sword  in  hand, 
as  the  possessions  of  "  the  most  High,  Mighty 
and  Redoubted  Monarch,  Louis,  Fourteenth  of 
that  name,  Most  Christian  King  of  France  and 
of  Navarre." 

Such  was  the  proud  claim  of  France  cover- 
ing the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  coun- 
try to  the  west ;  but  of  the  geography  of  much 
of  the  western  territory  the  French  had  little 


THE  FRENCH  IN  LOUISIANA 


more  knowledge  than  the  Spaniards  in  1493 
when  the  bull  of  Pope  Alexander  VI  divided 
the  Western  World  between  the  Spaniards 
and  Portuguese.  frW,v,«HM^v««r  «i 

Of  the  many  .  oJ^y^.. 

French  soldiers, 
priests,  traders, 
and  adventurers 
associated  with 
the  early  history 
of  the  Louisiana 
territory,  the 
most  famous  are 
Father  Mar- 
quette  and  the 
La  Salle  whom 
we  have  met  at 
the  outset  of  his 
career.  It  was 
in  1673,  sixty-five  years  after  Samuel  de 
Champlain  founded  Quebec,  that  Louis  Joliet, 
an  agent  of  Count  Frontenac,  governor  of 
New  France,  or  Canada,  and  Father  Marquette, 
a  Jesuit  priest  of  singular  devoutness  and 


Louis  XIV,  KING  OF  FRANC K 


26  LOUISIANA  PUECHASE 

unflinching  courage,  were  commissioned  to 
discover  the  great  river  which  had  proved  so 
elusive,  —  the  Mississippi.  From  Mackinaw 
they  journeyed  to  Green  Bay  and  entered  Fox 
River.  With  the  aid  of  Indian  guides  they 
found  their  way  to  a  portage  which  brought 
them  to  the  Wisconsin  River.  "  They  bade 
farewell  to  the  waters  that  flowed  to  the 

St.  Lawrence, 
and  committed 
themselves  to 
the  current  that 

AUTOGRAPH  OF  JOLLIET, 

OR  JOLIET  AS  THE  NAME     W  ft  S       tO       Q  Q  3,  Y 


IS  USUALLY  SPELLED 


them,  they  knew 
not  whither,  —  perhaps  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
perhaps  to  the  South  Sea,  or  the  Gulf  of 
California."  l 

On  June  17  they  reached  the  present  site  of 
Prairie  du  Chien,  Wisconsin,  and  there  before 
them  stretched  the  stream  which  was  the  object 
of  their  quest.  Day  after  day.  in  spite  of  strange 
and  terrifying  adventures,  they  kept  their  way 

1  Parkman,  "  La  Salle  and  the  Discovery  of  the  Great 
West," 


FATHKR  MAKQUKTTK 

(From  Trentanove's  statue  in  the  Capitol  at  Washington) 

Tliis  is  an  ideal  figure.    In  ISO"  a  painting  was  discovered  in  Montreal  which 
is  claimed  to  be  a  portrait. 


THE  FRENCH   IN   LOUISIANA  27 

down  the  great  river,  passing  the  mouth  of  the 
Missouri,  which  Lewis  and  Clark  were  after- 
wards to  ascend,  and  finally  reaching  the  mouth 
of  the  Arkansas.  They  were  seven  hundred 
miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  al- 
though they  thought  themselves  much  nearer ; 
but  their  journey  had  made  it  clear  that  the 
Mississippi  flowed  southward  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  This  fact  was  ascertained,  and,  since 
below  them  lay  danger  from  hostile  Indians  and 
possibly  from  Spaniards,  they  reembarked  on 
July  IT,  and  set  forth  on  their  arduous  return 
journey  to  report  their  discovery.  In  accord- 
ance with  the  custom  of  these  pioneer  priests 
Father  Marquette  kept  a  careful  journal,  and 
this  "  Relation,"  as  it  is  called,  preserves  the 
record  of  the  perilous  quest  of  a  classic  figure 
in  the  discovery  of  the  West.1 
^Jn  1682  La  Salle,  seeking  a  trade  route  for 
the  transportation  of  heavy  skins,  descended 
the  Mississippi  to  its  mouth.  This  was  the  first 
time  that  the  entire  course  of  the  "  Father  of 

^Ir.  Reuben  G.  Tlnvaite's  <•  Father  Marquette"  is  an 
excellent  presentation  of  this  story. 


28 


LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 


Waters  "  had  been  traversed  by  a  white  man. 
On  April  9,  on  the  shore  near  the  mouth,  he 


LA  SALLE  AT  THE  MOUTH  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI 

erected  a  column  bearing  the  arms  of  France 
and  an  inscription,  and  took  possession  of  ''this 


THE  FKENCH  IN   LOUISIANA  29 

country  of  Louisiana "  from  "  the  mouth  of 
the  great  river  St.  Louis,  otherwise  called  the 
Ohio,  ...  as  also  along  the  river  Colbert,1  or 
Mississippi,  and  the  rivers  which  discharge 
themselves  thereinto,  from  its  source  ...  as 
far  as  its  mouth.  ..." 

But  after  this  triumph  came  a  dangerous  ill- 
ness which  kept  him  a  prisoner  at  the  Chicka- 
saw  Bluffs,  while  his  faith- 
ful follower  Tonty  was 
dispatched  to  Michilli- 
mackinac2  with  tidings 
of  his  success.  La  Salle 

AUTOGRAPH  OF  TONTY 

returned  to    France    and 

was  finally,  in  1684,  enabled  to  set  sail  for  the 

1  A   short-lived  name  given  in  honor  of  the  minister  of 
finance  of  Louis  XIV. 

2  The  name  was  applied  generally  by  the  French  to  the 
region  about  the  Straits  of  Mackinac  between  Lake  Huron 
and  Lake  Michigan.     The  island  of  Mackinac  to  the  east 
was  an  early  military  post,  and  was  also  the  first  site  of  the 
mission  of  St.  Ignace,  afterwards  transferred  to  the  present 
site  of  St.  Ignace    on   the   mainland  north  of  the  straits, 
where  Father  Marquette  was  finally  interred   a  year  after 
his   death   in   lt>75    near    the    present    site   of   Ludington, 
Michigan.     A  century  later  the  English  built  a  fort  at  the 
present  site  of  Mackinaw  City,  south  of  the  straits. 


30  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

mouth  of  the  Mississippi  with  a  force  which 
was  to  build  fortifications,  establish  a  colony, 
and  hold  the  country  against  the  Spanish. 
Through  an  error  they  landed  at  Matagorda 
Bay,  in  Texas,  and  there  followed  a  squalid 
period  of  privation,  suffering,  and  discontent, 
culminating  in  a  conspiracy  of  La  Salle's  fol- 
lowers and  the  assassination  of  this  brave 
explorer  in  1687. 

Several  of  those  who  served  with  La  Salle 
made  their  mark  in  the  early  annals  of  the 
west.  Joutel  and  Tonty,  his  loyal  lieutenants, 
have  left  valuable  records  of  adventurous  ex- 
plorations. Another  less  heroic  figure,  was 
Father  Hennepin,  the  discoverer  of  the  Falls 
of  St.  Anthony  at  Minneapolis,  who  for  a  time 
accompanied  La  Salle.  But  Father  Hennepin, 
unhappily,  was  romancer  as  well  as  historian. 

To  Pierre  Le  Sueur  is  due  the  credit  of  a 
journey  in  1700  from  the  mouth  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi to  the  country  of  the  Sioux,  in  the 
present  state  of  Minnesota,  and  a  return  down 
the  river.  f~This  journey  was  made  in  a  profit- 
less search  for  furs  and  mineral  wealth.  I  In  the 


THE   FRENCH   IN   LOUISIANA  31 

same  year  Pierre  Le  Moyne  d'Iberville  planned 
an  expedition  to  the  upper  Missouri,  lured  by 
the  hope  of  a  western  passage  down  some  river 
to  the  western  sea.  In  1717  Hubert  urged  a 
similar  plan  upon  the  French  Council  of  Marine.1 
The  belief  in  the  myth  of  the  northwest  pass- 
age2 to  the  Orient  was  waning,  but  there  was 
still  faith,  not  wholly  unfounded,  in  a  nearly 
continuous  river  route  to  the  western  ocean, 
and,  failing  this,  it  was  believed  that  a  way 

could  be  made  by  land.// 
J          / 

1  In   1704    Bienville    reported    that    over    one    hundred 
Canadians  were  scattered  along  the  Mississippi  and  Mis- 
souri.    In    1705   a   Canadian   named  Laurain   claimed    to 
have  ascended  the  Missouri,  and  in  1708  Nicolas  de  la  Salle 
proposed  a  plan  like  those  of  Iberville  and  Hubert.     In 
1719  I)u  Tisne  ascended  the  Missouri  above  Grand  River. 
Afterward  he  crossed  the  state  of  Missouri  and  reached  the 
Indians  on  the  Osage  River.     The  early  eighteenth-century 
explorations  of  Saint  Denis,  La  Ilarpe,  Bourgmont,  and  the 
brothers  Mallet,  for  the  most  part  in  the  southern  half  of 
the  Louisiana  territory,  in  Texas,  and  even  Xew  Mexico, 
helped,  in  the  language  of  Parkman  ("A  Half  Century  of 
Conflict"),  "to  unveil  the  remote  southwest." 

2  This  idea  represented  a  phase  of  the  long  search  for  a 
northwest  passage  to  the  Orient,  which  is  perhaps  most  closely 
identified  in  the  popular  mind  with  the  early  attempts  in  the 
region  of  Hudson  Bay  and  in  the  Arctic. 


32  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Under  the  regency  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans, 
in  1716,  three  posts  were  planned  between 
Lake  Superior  and  Lake  Winnipeg  to  serve 
as  bases  of  supplies  for  an  overland  expedi- 
tion, and  one  was  actually  built  at  the  mouth 
of  the  river  Kaministiguia  on  the  north  shore 
of  Lake  Superior.  But  nothing  more  was  done, 
and  three  years  later  Charlevoix,  the  Jesuit  his- 
torian of  early  Canada,  was  ordered  to  visit  the 
country  and  report  upon  a  passage  to  the  west- 
ern sea.  His  report  was  that  the  Pacific  prob- 
ably lay  just  to  the  west  of  the  country  of  the 
Sioux.  One  plan  which  he  advocated  was  the 
ascent  of  the  Missouri,  "  the  source  of  which  is 
certainly  not  far  from  the  sea." 

Iberville  and  Charlevoix  had  pointed  to  the 
Missouri  as  the  route  nearly  a  century  before 
the  journey  of  Lewis  and  Clark.  Then  came 
the  Verendryes,  who  preceded  the  Americans 
almost  to  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

La  Verendrye  the  elder,  a  French  soldier, 
explorer,  and  trader,  built  forts  at  the  Lake 
of  the  Woods,  on  the  site  of  Winnipeg,  and  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Saskatchewan.  In  the  course 


THE   FliENCH  IN   LOUISIANA  33 

of  his  expeditions  he  traveled  as  far  as  the 
Mandan  villages  on  the  Missouri  in  his  search 
for  the  western  sea.  This  was  in  1738.  It  was 
among  the  descendants  of  these  Mandans  living 
near  Bismarck,  Dakota,  that  Lewis  and  Clark 
passed  a  winter  nearly  seventy  years  later. 

In  1742  the  two  sons  of  Verendrye  made 
their  way  to  the  Mandan  villages,  and  un- 
dertook an  expedition  westward,  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Indians,  hoping  to  find  the 
Pacific.  They  traveled  between  the  Black 
Hills  and  the  Missouri,  entered  Montana,  and 
finally,  after  much  uncertain  journeying  and 
many  strange  experiences  with  the  nomadic 
tribes  of  Indians,  the  mountains  rose  before 
them.  The  Spaniards  had  crossed  the  moun- 
tains to  the  south,  but  the | Verendryes  were 
the  first  white  men  to  see  the  true  Rocky 
Mountains  on  the  north.  It  was  in  January, 
1743,  that  they  discovered  the  mountains, 
probably  the  Big  Horn  range  in  Wyoming. 
In  the  records  of  French  Louisiana  the  names 
of  the  Verendryes  merit  a  place  with  those  of 
Father  Marquette  and  La  Salle. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  FRENCH  IX  THE  EIGHTEENTH 
CENTURY 

The  founding  of  New  Orleans.  Extent  of  French  possessions. 
The  beginnings  of  St.  Louis.  The  gateway  of  Louisiana. 
Downfall  of  French  power.  Louisiana  ceded  to  Spain. 
American  and  English  explorations.  Oregon  not  included 
in  Louisiana. 

While  French  explorers  and  traders  were 
following  the  northern  rivers,  signs  of  genu- 
ine colonization  began  to  appear  in  the  south. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century 
three  countries  maintained  conflicting  claims 
to  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  Spain  held 
Florida  and  based  her  claim  to  the  westward 
on  De  Soto's  discovery  of  the  great  river. 
France  held  the  upper  waters,  and  La  Salle 
and  others  had  descended  the  river  to  its 
mouth  and  asserted  possession.  The  char- 
ters of  some  of  the  English  colonies  on  the 

34 


FRENCH  IN  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY     35 

seaboard  embodied  sweeping  claims  to  terri- 
tory from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific. 

In  spite  of  the  doubts  of  King  Louis  XIV 
of  France  as  to  the  value  of  the  new  coun- 
try, he  was  finally  persuaded  to  sanction  the 
founding  of  a  French  colony  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi.  This  was  largely  due  to 
the  enthusiasm  of  a  gallant  Canadian,  Pierre 


AUTOGRAPH  OF  LE  MOYNE  I>'!BEKVILLE 

Le  Moyne  d'Iberville,  who  sailed  from  France 
with  an  armed  expedition  in  1G98.  The  first 
colony  was  established  the  year  following  at 
Biloxi,  upon  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  within  the 
present  limits  of  Mississippi,  but  its  checkered 
career  was  ended  in  1718,  when  Bienville 
d'Iberville,  a  brother  of  Le  Moyne,  founded 
the  city  of  New  Orleans. 

The  early  years  of  the  French  colonists 
were  not  prosperous.  In  an  effort  to  make 
the  colony  a  source  of  income  rather  than 


36  LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 

expense,  the  king  in  1712  gave  to  Antoine 
Crozat  an  exclusive  right  to  trade  in  that 
quarter.  The  failure  of  this  plan  resulted  in  its 

abandonment  in  1717, 
and  the  Company 
of  the  West,  better 
known  as  the  Missis- 

AUTOGRAFH    OF    BlESVILLE  .  .      ^ 

sippi  Company,  was 
formed,  which  succeeded  to  Crozat's  rights. 

Under  the  leadership  of  the  notorious  John 
Law,  who  for  a  time  was  a  financial  mag- 
nate in  France,  the  company  issued  an  unlim- 
ited amount  of  paper  money  without  adequate 
security.  This  was  done  in  part  to  further 
the  interests  of  the  company  in  the  Mississippi 


AUTOGRAPH  OF  JOHN  LAW 


valley;  but  after  a  period  of  wild  excitement 
and  speculation  in  France  it  was  found  that  the 
paper  money  could  not  be  exchanged  for  coin 
or  solid  property,  and  in  1721  there  followed 


FEENCH  IN  EIGHTEENTH  CENT  UK  Y     37 


collapse,  failure,  and  ruin.     This  was  the  end 
of  what  is  known  as  the  Mississippi  Bubble. 

In  spite  of  the  dismay  and  suffering  caused 
by  this  failure,  the  growth  of  the  colony  was 
quickened  during  this  era  of  speculation  by 
enforced  emigration  from  France,  since  it  was 


"VUE  DE  IA  •\01TVFI1F.  ORLEANS  EN  ,1119 


nf  tlur  ftrtt.r  dnjkiuv  ftwui.f  /-  7.' 
ft  fHir  ttcrritiv  an  /ti.<.r*  ft  mxtfacf 


ytr  HU.  zljuin/Jtaxmt-  ItwiUe-  ify  s 


NEW  ORLEANS  IN  1719 

necessary  to  settle  and  develop  the  new  lands 
as  quickly  as  possible.  These  troubles,  with 
attacks  by  the  Indians,  illness,  and  lack  of 
proper  supplies,  clouded  the  early  years  of 
French  settlement  in  Louisiana ;  but  the 
French  remained,  and  later  the  colony  began 
to  enjoy  prosperity. 


38  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Thus  by  discovery,  exploration  (and  to  some 
extent  by  colonization),  and  by  the  building 
of  forts  on  the  north  and  east,  the  French 
held  the  Mississippi  valley,  together  with  the 
vaguely  known  empire  to  the  west.  The  word 
"  colonization  "  must  be  accepted  with  limita- 
tions, for  neither  the  French  nor  the  Spanish 
were  led  by  the  motives  which  caused  the  Eng- 
lish settlers  to  regard  the  new  country  as  a 
permanent  home  and  to  develop  it  for  the 
future  as  well  as  for  the  present.  But  while 
New  Orleans  was  struggling  through  its  early 
years  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  the 
French  trappers  and  traders  were  descending 
the  river  from  the  north. 

In  1762  M.  d'Abbadie,  the  French  director 
general  of  Louisiana,  granted  to  Pierre  Laclede, 
the  head  of  a  company  of  merchants,  the 
exclusive  right  to  trade  with  the  Indians  on 
the  Missouri.  Two  years  later  this  company 
founded  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  selecting  its 
present  site  for  the  erection  of  a  house  and 
four  stores.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the 
city,  which  for  practically  a  century  remained 


FRENCH  IN  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY     39 


the  commercial  center  of  the  Louisiana  terri- 
tory. It  was  here  that  the  American  fur  trade 
had  its  headquarters,  and  up  to  nearly  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  traffic 
in  furs  was  the  chief  industry  of  the  Louisiana 
territory.1  As  time  went  on  the  commerce 
of  the  Southwest  and  of  the  great  river 
passed  in  swelling  volume 
through  St.  Louis, 
the  gateway  of  the 
West  ;  but  all  this 
was  then  in  the 
future.  Even 
before  St.  Louis 

e  -11 

was  rounded  a 
change  had  come  in  the  fortunes  of  France. 
The  long  warfare  between  the  French  and 
English  in  North  America  had  culminated, 
and  the  rule  of  France  on  this  continent  was 
ended  forever. 

1  The  "  History  of  the  American  Fur  Trade,"  and  the 
"  History  of  Early  Steamboat  Navigation  on  the  Missouri 
River."  by  Captain  Hiram  M.  Chittenden,  U.S.A.,  are  indis- 
pensable to  students  of  the  early  nineteenth-century  history 
of  the  West. 


THE  ROYAL  FT.AG  OK  FRANCE 


40  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

In  1759  the  English  General  Wolfe  defeated 
the  French  General  Montcalm  on  the  Plains  of 
Abraham,  under  the  walls  of  Quebec.  Four 
years  later,  in  1763,  France  ceded  to  England 
her  American  possessions  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, with  the 
exception  of  New 
Orleans.1  But 
New  Orleans 
and  the  French 
possessions  west 
of  the  Missis- 
sippi, —  that  is, 
the  country  of 
the  Louisiana 
Purchase, — were 
secretly  ceded  to 
Spain  by  King  Louis  XV  of  France,  who 
desired  to  cement  a  Spanish  alliance. 

In  1768  the  first  Spanish  governor  appeared 
at  New  Orleans,  and  northward  from  the  sea 

1  In  the  same  year  Spain  transferred  Florida  to  England 
in  exchange  for  Havana,  but  Spain  received  Florida  back 
in  1783. 


FRENCH  IN  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY     41 

along  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  four- 
teen hundred  miles,  the  Spanish  authority 
prevailed.  All  the  traffic  down  the  Missis- 
sippi from  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  or  else- 
where must  pass  under  the  Spanish  flag. 

The  American  Revolution  was  at  this  time 
close  at  hand.  Then  there  came  the  critical 
period  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  and 
the  organization  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  so  that  the  attention  of  the 
American  people  was  occupied  elsewhere.  For 
nearly  forty  years  the  Spaniards,  who  had  been 
the  first  to  penetrate  the  Louisiana  Purchase, 
held  full  possession,  although,  as  we  shall  see, 
France  presently  undertook  to  regain  the  coun- 
try, and  with  the  growth  of  the  United  States 
west  of  the  Alleghenies  the  American  pressure 
began  to  strain  the  arbitrary  boundaries. 

The  Spaniards  made  no  prolonged  explora- 
tions to  the  north,  but  Americans  and  English 
began  to  investigate  the  unknown  and  remote 
west.  Jonathan  Carver,  a  native  of  New  York 
and  an  officer  in  the  war  with  France,  sug- 
gested an  attempt  to  cross  the  northwest 


42  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

portion  of  America  by  land.  This  was  looked 
upon  as  visionary,  but  in  1766  Carver  under- 
took an  exploring  expedition  in  which  he 
followed  the  Minnesota  River  for  some  two 
hundred  miles.  The  interest  of  this  journey 
to  us  lies  in  the  fact  that  Career  heard  much 
from  the  Indians  regarding  the  "Shining  Moun- 
tains," as  the  Rocky  Mountains  were  termed, 
and  that  he  learned  of  the  Oregon,  or  "  River 
of  the  West,"  which  is  now  the  Columbia.  It 
occurred  to  him  that  by  ascending  the  Mis- 
souri it  might  be  possible  to  cross  to  the  head 
waters  of  the  Columbia.  But  official  indiffer- 
ence prevented  the  attempt.  This  idea  was 
carried  out  nearly  forty  years  afterward  by 
Lewis  and  Clark.  Twenty-five  years  later  a 
Scotchman,  Alexander  Mackenzie,  crossed  the 
continent  to  the  Pacific,  but  his  route  lay 
farther  north,  through  what  is  now  Manitoba 
and  British  Columbia. 

On  the  Pacific  coast  the  Spaniards  held 
California,  but  they  knew  little  of  the  North- 
west. This  was  reached  by  the  famous  ex- 
plorer, Captain  Cook,  who  visited  Alaska  in 


FRENCH  IN  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUKY     43 

1778.  Vancouver,  another  English  explorer, 
sailed  by  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  without 
entering  it ;  this  was  left  for  American  enter- 
prise. In  1787  some  Boston  merchants  sent 
Captain  Robert  Gray  in  the  sloop  Washington 
and  Captain  John  Kendrick  in  the  ship  Colum- 
bia around  Cape  Horn  to  the  northwest  coast 
to  trade  for  furs,  which  were  to  be  exchanged 
for  silk  and  tea  in  China.  So  far  as  Gray  was 
concerned  the  journey  was  successful,  and  after 
exchanging  ships  with  Kendrick,  Gray  returned 
by  way  of  China  in  the  Columbia.,  which  was 
the  first  ship  to  circumnavigate  the  globe 
under  the  American  flag.  On  this  first  voy- 
age Gray  nearly  lost  his  ship  on  the  bar  of 
an  unknown  stream,  probably  the  Columbia. 
On  his  second  voyage,  in  1792,  he  entered 
and  named  the  great  river.  His  discovery 
was  earlier  than  that  of  Vancouver  and 
formed  the  basis  of  the  subsequent  claim  to 
Oregon  urged  by  the  United  States  against 
Great  Britain.1  Gray  was  followed  by  other 

1  II.  II.  Bancroft  argues  for  the  discovery  of  the  Colum- 
bia by  Heceta  in  1775,  but  Gray's  discovery  is  generally 


44  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

traders,  and  in  a  few  years  a  regular  trading 
post  was  established  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia. 

While  a  knowledge  of  these  northwestern 
explorations  is  desirable,  it  should  be  under- 
stood that  Oregon,  as  the  northwest  beyond 
the  Rocky  Mountains  was  called,  was  not  in- 
cluded in  the  Louisiana  Purchase.  The  Loui- 
siana Purchase  extended  only  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  but,  as  it  was  important  to  find 
a  way  across  and  to  explore  the  Columbia  to 
the  sea,  the  task  of  finding  a  route  to  the 
Pacific  was  included  in  the  instructions  to 
Lewis  and  Clark. 

accepted.  The  rival  claims  of  Gray  and  Vancouver  and 
their  relation  to  the  Oregon  question  are  not  essential  here. 


THE   AMERICAN   WESTWARD   MOVEMENT 

Advancing  beyond  the  Alleghenies.  Settlement  rather  than 
exploration  or  exploitation.  Experiences  of  the  pioneers. 
Their  way  to  the  sea  blocked  by  Spanish  control  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  How  the  Spaniards  ruled  New 
Orleans. 

After  the  long  periods  of  desultory  Span- 
ish exploration,  of  French  trading  expeditions 
and  attempts  at  military  and  commercial 
occupation  which  have  been  sketched  in  the 
preceding  chapters,  the  history  of  Louisiana 
shows  the  influence  of  Americans  bent  upon 
actual  settlement  of  the  country  to  the  west- 
ward of  the  Alleghenies.1  The  downfall  of 

1  McMaster's  '•  History  of  the  People  of  the  United 
States,"  Vol.  II,  and  Roosevelt's  "Winning  of  the  West" 
give  picturesque  accounts  of  the  pioneers  and  the  significance 
of  their  movement.  Hinsdale's  "  The  Old  Northwest,"  Win- 
sor's  "The  Mississippi  Basin  (1607-170:5)"  and  "The  West- 
ward Movement  (17<io-1708)  "  may  be  consulted  with  profit. 

45 


46 


LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 


French  power  on  this  continent  brought  the 
beginning  of  another  era  in  the  history  of 
Louisiana.  But  the  operation  of  the  forces 
represented  in  the  American  westward  pres- 
sure was  delayed,  first  by  the  Revolution,  and 
then  by  the  fierce  opposition  of  the  south- 
western and  north- 
western Indian  tribes 
who  fought  to  hold 
the  Middle  West.  In 
spite  of  all  obstacles 
the  way  was  opened 
by  the  rifles  of  the 
soldiers  and  frontiers- 
men who  followed 
George  Rogers  Clark, 
Anthony  W  a  y  n  e, 
and  other  leaders  in 
the  winning  of  the  West.  Close  behind  them 
came  a  swelling  tide  of  migration  across  the 
Alleghenies.  The  sound  of  the  axes  and  rifles 
of  the  American  pioneers  along  the  eastern  trib- 
utaries of  the  Mississippi  marked  the  opening 
of  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  West. 


GEORGE  ROGKRS  CLARK 


GEORGE   ROGERS  CLARK'S  EXI-EDITION-  TO 

VlXCEXNES     IX     1770 


AMEKICAN  WESTWARD  MOVEMENT 


were  changed. 


Up  to  the  end  of  the  Revolution  the  pos- 
session of  Louisiana  territory  by  one  foreign 
power  or  another  had 
not  touched  Ameri- 
cans closely.  But 
the  conditions 
In 

the  western  migra- 
tion of  the  later 
eighteenth  centu ry 
and  the  demands  of 
these  frontiersmen 
for  a  free  route  to  the 
seaboard  lay  influences  which  finally  resulted 
in  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana.1 

1  "  Iu  178i  Pittsburg  numbered  one  hundred  dwellings 
and  almost  one  thousand  inhabitants.  It  was  the  centring 
point  of  emigrants  to  the  West,  and  from  it  the  travellers 
were  carried  in  keel-boats,  in  Kentucky  flat-boats,  and  Indian 
pirogues  down  the  waters  of  the  Ohio,  ...  to  the  filthy  and 
squalid  settlements  at  the  falls  of  the  Ohio,  or  on  to  the 
shores  of  the  Mississippi,  where  La  Clede,  twenty  years 
earlier,  had  laid  the  foundations  of  St.  Louis.  .  .  .  The  boat 
was  at  every  moment  likely  to  become  entangled  in  the 
branches  of  the  trees  that  skirted  the  river,  or  be  fired 
into  by  the  Indians  who  lurked  in  the  woods.  The  cabin 
was  therefore  low,  .  .  .  and  lined  with  blankets  and  with 


ANTHONY  WAYNE 


48  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

The  growth  of  this  movement  is  shown  by 
the  returns  of  the  census  for  Kentucky,  Ten- 
nessee, and  the  Northwest  Territory,  which 
then  represented  our  West.  In  1790  there 
were  73,677  people  in  Kentucky,  and  in  18UO 
there  were  220,955.  Tennessee  showed  35,691 
people  in  1790,  and  105,602  in  1800.  The 
census  of  1790  gives  no  population  for  Ohio 
and  Indiana  territories,  but  ten  years  later 
there  were  44,678.  Before  these  stalwart 
pioneers  the  forests  were  swept  aside  to  make 
room  for  farms.  Rude  log  cabins  were  built 
with  chimneys  of  logs  plastered  with  mud. 
The  settlers  made  their  simple  furniture  with 
their  own  tools.  Their  hunting  shirts  and 
trousers  were  of  homemade  linsey,  a  mixture 
of  linen  and  wool,  and  of  deerskin.  Most  of 
their  food  was  gained  by  their  rifles  and  their 
traps.  Corn  was  pounded  or  ground  in  rude 

beds  to  guard  the  inmates  from  Indian  bullets.  From 
St.  Louis  rude  boats  and  rafts  floated  down  the  river  to 
Natchez  and  New  Orleans.  .  .  .  The  current  was  so  rapid 
that  it  seemed  hopeless  to  attempt  a  return.  The  boats 
were  therefore  hastily  put  together  and  sold  at  New  Orleans 
as  lumber."  —  McMaster's  History,  Vol.  I.  pp.  69-70. 


AMERICAN  WESTWARD  MOVEMENT     49 

stone  mortars  to  make  meal.  But  the  vigor 
and  energy  of  these  hardy  pioneers  soon  bet- 
tered their  condition.  They  began  to  raise 
tobacco  and  wheat  and  to  cure  hams  and 
bacon.  Then  came  the  question  of  trade.1 

How  could  they  exchange  these  products 
for  money  or  for  goods  of  which  they  stood  in 
need  ?  There  was  no  market  at  hand.  The 
railroad  was  yet  in  the  future.  To  the  east- 
ward lay  the  Alleghenies  and  a  long  and 
difficult  journey  by  land  impossible  for  their 
purposes.  Their  easiest  and  cheapest  route  to 
a  market  was  by  water,  and  close  at  hand 
were  the  Ohio  and  other  rivers  flowing  to  the 

1  Certain  economic  phases  of  this  pioneer  life  have  been 
summarized  as  follows  :  "  Currency  was  very  scarce  and  was 
replaced  by  articles  of  general  value,  such  as  skins  and  jugs 
of  whiskey.  Cowbells  were  also  such  a  necessity  that  they 
became  an  acceptable  tender.  Small  currency  was  scarce, 
and  a  silver  dollar  was  often  cut  into  half  dollars  or  quarters 
with  an  axe  or  chisel.  .  .  .  Salt  was  worth  six  cents  a  pound. 
Beef  sold  at  four  cents  a  pound  and  deer  meat  at  three.  .  .  . 
Corn  was  sold  at  fifty  cents  a  bushel.  A  single  log  cabin 
could  be  built  for  8150.  Feather  beds  were  a  great  luxury 
and  readily  brought  six  dollars  each.  The  family  washing 
was  done  on  the  river  bank."  —  Sparks's  "Expansion  of 
the  American  People." 


50  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Mississippi,  and  offering  a  tempting  water 
way  to  New  Orleans  and  the  sea.  But  New 
Orleans  was  held  by  the  Spaniards.  Their 
laws  and  customs  regulations  wrere  arbitrary; 


A  FLATBOAT  ON  THK  Oin 


their  business  methods  were  antiquated,  com- 
plicated, and  irksome.  Between  their  medi- 
aeval rule  and  the  free  and  impatient  spirit 
of  the  pioneers  there  was  instant  conflict. 
In  the  early  nineties  the  Spanish  authorities 


AMERICAN  WESTWARD  MOVEMENT     51 

closed  navigation  and  refused  to  grant  the 
right  to  deposit  goods  at  New  Orleans  to 
await  the  arrival  of  trading  vessels.  This 
right  was  essential  for  the  men  who  journeyed 
down  the  great  river  in  their  ''broad-horns," 
or  rude  homemade  boats. 

A  crisis  seemed  at  hand  in  179-5.,  but  it  was 
averted  by  the  Spanish  minister  of  state, 
Manuel  Godoy,  known  as  the  "  Prince  of 
Peace,"  l  who  more  than  once  had  proved  his 
friendly  feeling  for  the  United  States.  In 
1795  a  treaty  was  signed,  which  granted  the 
right  of  deposit,  with  certain  minor  limita- 
tions, for  three  years.  Thus  an  outbreak 
was  averted.  The  way  to  a  market  was  kept 
open  during  the  three  years,  and  thereafter 
until  1802.  Then  the  Spaniards  withdrew 
the  right  of  deposit,  the  West  rose  in  pro- 
test, and  therein  lay  a  potent  motive  for  the 

1  This  remarkable  title  was  derived  from  Godoy's  negoti- 
ation of  the  treaty  of  Basel  \vith  France  in  1795.  His  per- 
sonal character  was  open  to  reproach,  but  in  his  attitude 
toward  France  and  toward  American  interests  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi  he  rendered  valuable  aid  to  the  United 
States. 


52  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

acquisition  of  at  least  the  mouth  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi. But  the  immediate  demand  of  these 
American  settlers  was  not  for  Louisiana,  but 
simply  for  an  open  seaport,  or  at  most  the 
possession  of  the  river's  mouth. 

On  the  south,  therefore,  the  Americans 
were  shut  in  by  Spain.  In  these  days,  when 
we  have  seen  Spain  losing  the  very  last  of 
her  holdings  in  the  Western  Hemisphere,  it 
is  hard  to  realize  the  extent  of  her  sway 
a  little  more  than  a  century  ago.  A  hun- 
dred years  before  our  war  with  Spain  the 
Spaniards  held  Texas,  Mexico,  and  the  Flori- 
das,  not  to  mention  the  West  Indies  and  all 
of  Central  and  South  America  except  Brazil. 
They  controlled  the  ports  of  Pensacola,  Mobile, 
and  New  Orleans.  The  Spanish  possessions 
ran  from  Fernandina  to  Natchez,  and  then 
north  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi  to 
the  Lake  of  the  Woods.  Above  New  Orleans, 
as  far  as  Point  Coupee,  there  were  planta- 
tions and  villages.  North  of  Point  Coupee 
the  west  bank  of  the  river  was,  with  few 
exceptions,  a  wilderness. 


AMERICAN  WESTWARD  MOVEMENT     53 

The  older  part  of  New  Orleans,1  which  was 
laid  out  under  Bienville  by  the  Sieur  La  Blonde 
de  la  Tour,  was  inclosed  by  ramparts.  Most 
of  the  streets  retained  their  French  names. 
Outside  the  ramparts  dwelt  a  motley  colony 
of  foreigners  and  Americans.  Many  of  the 
latter  were  traders  who  had  floated  down  the 
river  in  clumsy  boats,  bringing  produce  for 
sale  or  shipment.  The  levee  was  crowded 
with  shipping  and  piled  high  with  goods. 
Spanish  officers,  regidores,  alcaldes,  and  syn- 
dics, ruled  a  city  which  offered  a  most  pictur- 
esque mingling  of  Spanish,  French,  Creole, 
foreign,  and  American  types.  But  while  all 
this  was  undoubtedly  picturesque,  the  mediae- 
val customs  of  the  Spaniards,  and  their  many 
rules  and  taxes,  were  galling  to  the  active  and 
impatient  Americans. 

1  McMaster,  Vol.  Ill,  chap,  xiv,  gives  a  picturesque  de- 
scription of  Spanish  Xew  Orleans. 


CHAPTER   V 

LOUISIANA'S   CRITICAL   PERIOD 

France  tries  to  regain  the  West.  Genet's  intrigues.  Attitude 
of  England  and  Spain.  Napoleon's  designs.  Talleyrand's 
plans  for  a  colonial  empire.  Louisiana  ceded  to  France. 
Napoleon's  plans  checked  by  Toussaint's  rebellion  in  San 
Domingo. 

If  Spanish  control  of  the  outlet  of  our 
western  trade  was  bad,  a  French  rule  under 
the  aggressive  Napoleon  would  have  been 
worse,  and  this  began  to  appear  as  a  possi- 
bility.. The  pride  of  the  French  had  been 
hurt  by  their  cession  of  Louisiana  to  Spain. 
So  strong  was  this  feeling  that  various  efforts 
were  made  by  French  ministers  to  retrain  the 

\J  O 

lost  territory.  To  the  government  of  the 
United  States  Louisiana  became  in  the  last 
decade  of  the  eighteenth  century  a  source 
of  constant  anxiety.  From  the  beginning 
of  this  decade  to  the  consummation  of  the 

54 


LOUISIANA'S  CRITICAL  PERIOD        55 

purchase  in  1803  was  the  most  critical  period 
in  the  varied  history  of  Louisiana.  Within 

\j 

our  borders  there  was  the  expansion  of  a  race 
not  to  be  held  in  check.  Without,  the  efforts 
of  three  great  powers  were  concerned  at  vari- 
ous times  with  the  possession  of  Louisiana. 
A  mere  outline  of  these  efforts  \vill  illustrate 
the  perils  of  the  situation. 

In  1700,  when  England  and  Spain  were  at 
variance,  the  English  minister  William  Pitt 
contemplated  a   seizure        ~. 
of  the  Floridas  and  Lou-     /* 
isiana,  which  Washing-   *-/  V 
ton,  and  Jefferson,  then 

Secretary  of    State,        AUTOGRAPH  OF  GENET 

rightly  viewed  as  a  menace  to  the  future  of 
the  United  States.  Fortunately  the  danger 
passed,  but  only  to  be  succeeded  by  a  new 
peril. 

France,  eager  to  recover  Louisiana,  sent 
Genet  as  her  minister  to  the  United  States 
in  1793  with  a  proposition  for  an  alliance 
which  should  aim  at  the  wresting  of  Canada 
from  Enidand  and  the  seizure  of  Louisiana 


56  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

and  the  Floridas  from  Spain.  When  this 
"  entangling  foreign  alliance "  was  declined, 
Genet,  acting  under  secret  instructions  from 
his  government,  instigated  movements  in  the 
Carolinas  and  Georgia  to  seize  the  Floridas, 
and  in  Kentucky  to  descend  upon  New 
Orleans.  The  frontiersmen  were  ready,  but 
the  progress  of  the  French  Revolution  and  the 
request  of  our  government  for  Genet's  recall 
prevented  a  frontier  revolt  against  Spanish 
occupation  which  might  have  had  results  of 
lasting  consequence. 

The  plottings  of  Genet  to  wrest  Louisiana 
from  Spain  were  followed  by  France's  attempt 
to  secure  Louisiana  through  the  treaty  of  Basel, 
which  closed  her  war  with  Spain.  In  1796, 
through  the  French  minister  to  Spain,  another 
effort  was  made  in  the  series,  which  resulted 
in  success  in  1800.  By  1797  there  were  added 
complications.  The  Spanish  minister  at  Wash- 
ington was  expressing  apprehensions  of  an 
invasion  of  upper  Louisiana  by  the  English. 
The  English  minister  Liston  denied  the 
charge,  but  admitted  that  there  had  been 


LOUISIANA'S  CKITICAL  PEKI01)        57 

some  discussion  of  an  invasion  of  Louisiana 
from  the  south.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Senator 
Blount  of  Tennessee  was  implicated  in  this 
plot  and  was  expelled  from  the  Senate.1 

In  the  following  year  Talleyrand  broached 

O         »/  <Lf 

his  plan  of  a  great  colonial  French  empire  in 
his  formal  proposition  to  Spain  to  exchange 
Louisiana  for  a  principality  to  be  made  up  of 
the  papal  legations  and  the  duchy  of  Parma. 
This  ambitious  scheme  was  coupled  with  a 
generally  in- 

^  s 

imical  attitude  *  •  /*  •  •J*-    f<*. <<t 

on  the  part  of 

AUTOGRAPH  OF  TALLEYRAND 

France,  which 

led  to  open  hostilities  on  the  sea  between 
the  United  States  and  France  in  1798-1799. 
England,  stirred  by  the  growing  aggressive- 
ness of  France,  contemplated  cooperation  with 
the  United  States  in  the  prevention  of  the 
transfer  of  Louisiana  to  France. 


1  The  Spanish  delay,  170")-! 709,  in  removing  troops 
from  Walnut  Hills,  Chickasaw  Bluff,  and  other  river  posts 
according  to  the  treaty,  irritated  our  West  and  influenced 
the  Blount  conspiracy. 


58  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Next,  in  1800,  came  the  secret  treaty  of 
retrocession  by  which  Louisiana  was  to  be 
returned  to  France,  and  in  1802  we  find  an 
English  alliance  again  considered  as  a  possible 
means  of  defense  against  French  aggression.1 
In  addition  to  these  menaces  of  foreign  inter- 
ference we  must  bear  in  mind  the  pressure 
exercised  at  home  by  frontier  settlers,  sorely 
tried  by  Spanish  exactions,  and  none  too 
patient  or  law-abiding  at  the  best.  This 
pressure  made  the  outcome  inevitable.2  The 
various  parts  which  the  question  played  in 
our  own  politics  need  not  be  dwelt  upon  in 
detail,  but  it  contained  possibilities  not  only 

1  "  From  the  moment  that  France  takes  New  Orleans 
we  must  marry  ourselves  to  the  British  fleet  and  nation." 

—  Jefferson  to  Livingston. 

2  "  The  winning  of  Louisiana  was  due  to  no  one  man,  and 
least  of  all  to  any  statesman  or  set  of  statesmen.    It  followed 
inevitably  upon  the  great  westward  thrust  of  the  settler  folk, 

—  a  thrust  which  was  delivered  blindly,  but  which  no  rival 
race  could  parry  until  it  was  stopped  by  the  ocean  itself." 

The  fourth  volume  of  Theodore  Roosevelt's  "  Winning 
of  the  West,"  from  which  this  extract  was  taken,  was  pub- 
lished in  1896,  when  the  author  could  not  foresee  that  the 
"westward  thrust"  of  Americans  was  not  to  be  stopped 
even  by  the  ocean. 


LOUISIANA'S  CRITICAL  PERIOD        59 

of  most  serious  foreign  embroilments  but  also 
of  dangerous  internal  dissensions. 

Of  all  these  attempts  upon  Louisiana  the 
most  dangerous,  and  the  most  important  as 
regards  their  unlooked-for  outcome,  were  the 
efforts  of  France  made  through  Talleyrand, 
who  became  minister  of  foreign  affairs  for  the 
French  Directory  in  1797. 

In  the  following  year  Talleyrand  wrote  the 
French  minister  at  Madrid  that  the  Floridas 
and  Louisiana  should  be  returned  to  France 
in  order  that  the  power  of  America  might  be 
bounded  by  the  limits  set  by  France  and 
Spain.  In  1800  Napoleon,  then  First  Con- 
sul, endeavored  again  to  secure  Louisiana 
from  Spain.  When,  on  October  1,  1800,  he 
signed  the  convention  or  agreement  between 
France  and  the  United  States  which  closed 
the  little  war  between  the  two  countries, 
Napoleon  at  the  same  time  drew  up  a 
secret  treaty  with  Spain,  providing  that  Loui- 
siana should  be  given  back  to  France.  All 
knowledge  of  this  was  carefully  kept  from 
the  world.  Napoleon  intended  that  nothing 


60  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

should  be  known  of  his  plan  until  he  was 
ready  to  land  a  force  of  troops  at  New 
Orleans.  For  this  purpose  the  French  portion 
of  the  island  of  San  Domingo  would  be  a 
most  important  base  of  operations. 

But  these  plans  were  checked  by  a  series  of 
events  which  led  even  Napoleon  to  change  his 
purpose.  The  influence  of  the  Spanish  min- 
ister Godoy  kept  King  Carlos  IV  of  Spain 
from  signing  the  treaty  with  France  until 
the  autumn  of  1802.  In  San  Domingo  there 
began  in  1791  among  the  colored  population 
an  era  of  bloodshed  which  included  civil  war, 
massacre,  and  warfare  against  Spain  and 
France,  the  powers  which  claimed  control  of 
the  island.  Out  of  this  time  of  carnage  and 
revolt  rose  the  historic  figure  of  Toussaint 
L'Ouverture.1 

1  •' The  story  of  Toussaint  L'Ouverture  has  been  told 
almost  as  often  as  that  of  Xapoleon,  but  not  in  connection 
with  the  history  of  the  United  States,  although  Toussaint 
exercised  on  their  history  an  influence  as  decisive  as  that 
of  any  European  ruler.  His  fate  placed  him  at  a  point 
where  Bonaparte  needed  absolute  control.  San  Domingo 
was  the  only  center  from  which  the  measures  needed  for 


LOUISIANA'S   CRITICAL   PERIOD        61 

One  of  the  most  curious  of  the  many 
strange  events  associated  with  Louisiana  is 
that  Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  born  a  slave  in 
the  French  part  of  San  Domingo,  should  have 
done  so  much  to  thwart  the  ambition  of  Napo- 
leon for  a  colonial  empire.  In  1794,  after  a 
period  of  civil  war  and  anarchy  in  the  island, 
the  National  Assembly  of  France  abolished 


AUTOGRAPH  or  Torss.viNT   L'OrvKiiTrni-: 

slavery,  and  the  negroes,  led  by  Toussaint,  drove 
the  Spaniards  from  the  portion  of  the  island 
which  they  held.  He  became  the  actual  ruler, 
although  San  Domingo  was  nominally  a  colony 
of  France.  But  he  distrusted  France  and 
with  reason,  for  Napoleon  in  spite  of  friendly 

rebuilding  the  French  colonial  systems  could  radiate. 
Before  Bonaparte  could  reach  Louisiana  he  was  obliged  to 
crush  the  power  of  Toussaint."  —  "History  of  the  United 
States,"  by  Henry  Adams,  Vol.  J,  p.  378. 


62  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

promises  intended  to  crush  the  idea  of  free- 
dom cherished  by  Toussaint  and  his  followers. 

When  in  1798  the  United  States  became 
involved  with  France,  and  commercial  rela- 
tions were  suspended,  Toussaint  declared  his 
independence  and  assured  the  United  States 
that  he  would  safeguard  trade  if  it  were  re- 
newed. His  soldiers  cooperated  with  the 
American  fleet  at  the  siege  of  Jacmel,  a  port 
of  San  Domingo.  But  our  half-war  with 
France  came  to  an  end.  In  Europe  the 
treaty  of  Amiens  closed  the  war  between 
France  and  England,  and  then  Napoleon  was 
free  to  crush  Toussaint. 

In  1802  Napoleon  sent  General  Leclerc  with 
a  great  fleet  and  army  to  reconquer  and  occupy 
the  island.  Although  Toussaint  had  aided  us 
against  France,  the  United  States  now  made 
no  offer  of  intervention  in  his  behalf.  The 
negroes  fought  desperately  against  the  French, 
but  they  were  overmatched.  Toussaint  sur- 
rendered and  was  carried  to  France,  where  he 
died  in  prison.  There  are  grewsome  pages 
in  the  history  of  that  insurrection,  but 


LOUISIANA'S  C1UT1CAL  PElilOD        63 

Toussaint's  war  for  liberty  will  always  touch 
the  sympathies  of  American  readers. 

The  victory  of  the  French  in  San  Domingo 
was  dearly  bought.  Napoleon's  purpose  in 
the  summer  of  1802  was  "  to  take  possession 
of  Louisiana  in  the  shortest  time  possible." 
But  Toussaint's  rebellion  and  the  ravages 
of  yellow  fever  among  the  French  troops 
involved  delay  and  appalling  loss.  Time 
brought  a  change  of  purpose,  and  Napoleon's 
veterans  never  landed  to  occupy  Louisiana 
and  face  the  frontiersmen  and  soldiers  of 
the  United  States. 


CHAPTER  VI 
LOUISIANA  AN  ACTIVE  ISSUE 

The  East  slow  to  see  the  facts.  Foresight  of  Washington, 
Jefferson,  and  Hamilton.  A  critical  period.  Spanish 
exactions.  The  river  closed.  Popular  agitation.  The 
West  ready  for  war.  Jefferson  resolves  to  buy  New  Orleans 
and  the  Floridas.  Monroe  appointed  commissioner.  Liv- 
ingston's work  in  Paris.  Talleyrand's  startling  proposi- 
tion. How  Napoleon  made  his  purpose  known.  A  family 
quarrel  in  a  bath-room. 

Although  the  western  expansion  of  Ameri- 
cans after  the  Revolution  had  made  control 
of  the  Mississippi  a  question  of  swiftly  increas- 
ing consequence,  this  had  become  apparent  but 
slowly  to  the  people  of  the  East.  A  few  states- 
men saw  the  difficulties  which  were  realized 
so  forcibly  by  the  pioneers  who  were  pushing 
the  frontier  to  the  west.  As  early  as  1782, 
while  the  negotiations  were  in  progress  which 
resulted  in  the  'establishment  of  peace  with 
England  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris  the  following 


LOUISIANA  AN  ACTIVE  ISSUE 


65 


year,  Franklin  wrote  to  Jay  that  to  part  with 
the  Mississippi  were  as  if  one  should  sell  his 
street  door.1  In  1790  Washington  declared 
that  "  we  must  have  and  certainly  shall  have 
the  full  navigation  of  the  Mississippi."  It 
was  a  necessity  pointed  out  in  the  same  year 
by  Jefferson  when 
secretary  of  state. 
In  1799  Alexan- 
der Hamilton, 
even  then  in  ad- 
vance of  his  time, 
argued  that  we 
should  possess  not 
only  the  Floridas 
but  the  whole  of 
Louisiana.  Yet 
popular  sentiment 
in  the  East  was  slow  to  grasp  the  practical 
importance  of  an  issue  which  became  so  acute 

1  The  many  complications  with  France  and  Spain  as 
well  as  England  which  confronted  the  American  Peace 
Commission  are  described  in  "Winsor's  ';  Narrative  and 
Critical  History,"  Vol.  VII,  chap.  ii. 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 


66  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

in  the  West  as  early  as  1793  that  Kentuck- 
ians,  as  we  have  seen,  advocated  a  resort  to 
force  and  were  ready  to  follow  the  counsels 
of  Genet. 

In  the  East  the  Mississippi  question  was 
utilized  by  the  Federalists  in  the  first  year  of 
the  century  as  political  capital.  Their  bitter 
opposition  to  Jefferson,  who  became  President 
on  March  4,  1801,  led  them  to  exult  in  the 
dilemma  which  seemed  forced  upon  him  the 
following  year.  On  the  one  hand  there  was 
an  increasing  possibility  of  war  with  France ; 
on  the  other,  if  the  government  failed  to  sup- 
port the  demands  of  the  West  and  South,  there 
was  a  prospect  of  their  secession  and  the  dis- 
solution of  the  Union.  Jefferson's  supporters, 
the  Republicans,  argued  for  negotiation  rather 
than  war.  They  pointed  to  the  success  of 
Washington's  diplomacy  in  averting  another 
war  with  England  in  1794,  and  John  Adams's 
avoidance  of  a  general  war  with  France.  It 
was  a  situation  in  which  an  impetuous  chief 
executive  might  have  precipitated  a  war. 
Jefferson  was  emphatically  a  man  of  peace. 


-4- 


LOUISIANA  AN  ACTIVE  ISSUE         67 

When  Congress  met  in  December,  1802, 
the  President's  annual  message  was  awaited 
with  intense  eagerness ;  but  it  was  absolutely 
pacific.  This  was  not  due  to  indifference. 
Jefferson  had  proved  his  interest  in  the 
West.  It  was  in  January,  1802,  that  his 
minister  to  France,  Robert  R.  Livingston, 
learned  of  the  secret  treaty  by  which  Spain 
retroceded  Louisiana  to  France,  a  cession  at 
first  denied  by  Talley- 
rand.  In  May,  Madison, 
Jefferson's  secretary  of 

...  T  .  LIVINGSTON'S  AUTOGRAPH 

state,  was  writing  to  Liv- 
ingston regarding  the  menace  of  the  cession, 
and  transmitting  Jefferson's  instructions  for 
the  acquisition  from  Spain  of  New  Orleans  and 
the  territory  east  of  the  Mississippi  in  case  the 
cession  to  France  had  not  been  accomplished. 
In  Paris  Livingston  followed  closely  the  de- 
velopment of  Napoleon's  plans  and  labored  to 
find  a  way  of  carrying  out  his  instructions.  In 
Washington  Jefferson's  peaceful  and  cautious 
policy  influenced  Congress  at  the  outset  to 
leave  matters  in  his  hands.  But  in  the  West 


68  LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 

and  in  the  South  peace  was  unknown.  The 
news  of  the  retrocession  of  Louisiana  and  the 
suspension  of  the  right  of  deposit  for  Ameri- 
can goods  at  New  Orleans  by  the  Spanish  in- 
tendant,  Morales,  brought  an  outbreak  which 


JAMES  MONROE 


compelled  recognition.  Remonstrances  and 
memorials  were  circulated  through  the  West. 
State  legislatures  called  for  action.  Troops 
were  demanded  to  oppose  the  first  attempt 


LOUISIANA  AX  ACTIVE  ISSUE          69 

of  the  French  to  land  at  New  Orleans.  The 
West  and  the  South  clamored  for  freedom  of 
trade,  even  at  the  cost  of  war. 

It  became  inevitable  that  the  government 
should  take  action.  Jefferson  appointed  James 
Monroe  as  a  special  envoy  to  Paris  with  power 
to  buy  New  Orleans  and  the  Floridas  for 
$2,000,000.1  Here  was  the  American  begin- 
ning of  the  negotiations,  which  were  intended 
to  effect  only  the  purchase  of  New  Orleans  and 
the  Floridas.2  It  is  true,  however,  that  the 

MAN  11,  1803. 
GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  SENATE : 

.  .  .  While  my  confidence  in  our  minister  plenipotentiary 
at  Paris  is  entire  &  undiminished,  I  still  think  that  these 
objects  might  be  promoted  by  joining  with  him  a  person 
sent  from  here  directly.  .  .  . 

1  therefore  nominate  Robert  R.  Livingston  to  be  minister 
plenipotentiary,  &  James  Monroe  to  be  minister  extraordi- 
nary &  plenipotentiary,  with  full  powers  to  both  ...  or  to 
either  ...  to  enter  into  a  treaty  or  convention  .  .  .  for  the 
purpose  of  enlarging  &  more  effectually  securing  our  rights 
&  interests  in  the  river  Mississippi  &  in  the  territories  east- 
ward thereof.  .  .  .  Tu  JKFI,,:RSON 

(State  Papers.     For.  Eel.,  Vol.  II,  p.  475.) 

2  It  was  not  then  known  that  France  had  acquired  only 
Louisiana. 


70  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

farsighted  Livingston  proposed  that  France 
should  cede  the  Louisiana  territory  above  the 
Arkansas  River,  but  this  was  an  idea  of  his 
own,  and  the  instructions  given  by  Jefferson 
were  narrowly  limited,  as  we  have  seen.1 

The  earnestness  and  ability  with  which 
Livingston  labored  in  Paris  to  secure  the 
Floridas  and  New  Orleans  and  the  free  use  of 
the  Mississippi  seemed  to  be  poorly  rewarded 
by  the  appointment  of  Monroe  as  a  special 
commissioner  to  do  practically  what  he  was 
already  trying  to  bring  about.  But  the  seri- 
ousness of  the  situation  justified  a  special 
appointment,  and  it  was  Livingston  after  all 
who  held  the  larger  part  in  the  negotiations. 
Meantime  Livingston  argued  his  case  with 
Talleyrand,  with  Joseph  Bonaparte,  Napoleon's 

1  Jefferson's  views  at  this  stage  are  shown  in  a  letter 
written  to  Monroe,  January  13, 1803.  "  On  the  event  of  this 
mission  depend  the  future  destinies  of  the  Republic.  If  we 
cannot  by  a  purchase  of  the  country,  insure  to  ourselves  a 
course  of  perpetual  peace  and  friendship  with  all  nations, 
then,  .as  war  cannot  be  far  distant  it  behooves  us  to  be 
immediately  preparing  for  that  course,  without  however 
hastening  it ;  and  it  may  be  necessary,  on  your  failure  on 
the  Continent,  to  cross  the  Channel." 


LOUISIANA  AN   ACTIVE   ISSUE          71 

brother,  and  with  Barbe-Marbois,  minister  of 
the  treasury.  He  boldly  predicted  a  rupture 
with  the  United  States  in  case  France  should 
occupy  Louisiana  and  hold  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi  and  the  Floridas. 

For  a  long  time  his  arguments  seemed 
to  carry  little  weight,  but  on  April  11,  1803, 
Talleyrand  met  him  with  the  startling  propo- 
sition that  the  United  States  should  buy  the 
whole  of  Louisiana.  This  was  not  the  plan  of 
Jefferson ;  it  was  not  the  purpose  of  Living- 
ston. Napoleon  himself,  in  his  usual  arbi- 
trary fashion,  had  changed  his  purpose  and 
decided  to  offer  the  whole  of  the  great 
Louisiana  territory  to  the  United  States.1 

1  Disgust  at  the  disastrous  campaign  in  San  Domingo, 
anger  with  Spain,  a  desire  to  be  free  for  new  campaigns  in 
Europe,  and  a  wish  to  be  rid  of  the  whole  irritating  subject 
of  Louisiana  are  cited  by  Henry  Adams  as  among  the  prob- 
able motives  for  Xapoleon's  change  of  mind.  An  essential 
motive  was  evidently  due  to  the  likelihood  of  a  combina- 
tion of  England  and  the  United  States  against  France  in 
case  he  occupied  Louisiana.  The  result  might  well  have 
been  the  exhaustion  of  France  and  the  downfall  of  Xapo- 
leon  long  before  Waterloo,  with  radical  changes  in  European 
history  and  probably  in  our  own. 


72  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Livingston's  description  of  this  remarkable 
event  is  quoted  from  a  letter  to  Madison. 
"  M.  Talleyrand  asked  me  this  day  when 
pressing  the  subject  whether  we  wished  to 
have  the  whole  of  Louisiana.  I  told  him  no ; 
that  our  wishes  extended  only  to  New  Orleans 
and  the  Floridas ;  that  the  policy  of  France, 
however,  should  dictate  (as  I  had  shown  in 
an  official  note)  to  give  us  the  country  above 
the  river  Arkansas,  in  order  to  place  a  barrier 
between  them  and  Canada.  He  said  that  if 
they  gave  New  Orleans  the  rest  would  be  of 
little  value,  and  that  he  would  wish  to  know 
'  what  we  would  give  for  the  whole.'  I  told 
him  it  was  a  subject  I  had  not  thought  of, 
but  that  I  supposed  wre  should  not  object  to 
twenty  millions  [francs,  —  about  $4,000,000] 
provided  our  citizens  were  paid.  He  said  this 
was  too  low  an  offer  and  he  would  be  glad  if 
I  would  reflect  upon  it  and  tell  him  to-morrow. 
I  told  him  that  as  Mr.  Monroe  would  be  in 
town  in  two  days,  I  would  delay  my  further 
offer  until  I  had  the  pleasure  of  introducing 
him." 


NAPOLEON  AS  FIRST  CONSUL 


LOUISIANA  AN  ACTIVE  ISSUE         73 

Leaving  the  American  negotiations  for  a  mo- 
ment, it  is  worth  while  to  go  behind  the  scenes. 
Eirst,  Napoleon  confided  his  purpose  to  Talley- 
rand, and  later,  on  April  10,  to  Marbois  and 
another  of  his  ministers.  The  next  day,  a  few 
hours  before  Talleyrand  met  Livingston,  Napo- 
leon summoned  Marbois.  In  his  usual  peremp- 
tory fashion  he  exclaimed:  ''Irresolution  and 
deliberation  are  no  longer  in  season ;  I  renounce 
Louisiana.  It  is  not  only  New  Orleans  that  I 
cede ;  it  is  the  whole  colony,  without  reserve. 
I  know  the  price  of  what  I  abandon.  I  have 
proved  the  importance  I  attach  to  this  prov- 
ince, since  my  first  diplomatic  act  with  Spain 
had  the  object  of  recovering  it.  I  renounce 
it  with  the  greatest  regret;  to  attempt  obsti- 
nately to  retain  it  would  be  folly.  I  direct 
you  to  negotiate  the  affair.  Have  an  inter- 
view this  very  day  with  Mr.  Livingston."  1 

But  it  was  Talleyrand,  a-s-^e-have  seeivaBd 
not  Marbois,  who  a  few  hours  later  startled 
Livingston  with  this  unexpected  change. 

1  For  a  full  account  of  these  negotiations  see  "History 
of  the  United  States  of  America,"  by  Henry  Adams,  Vol.  II. 


74  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

While  the  matter  remained  unsettled,  there 
were  not  only  the  chances  of  discovery  and 
opposition  by  Spain,  and  of  irritation  and 
change  of  plan  on  Napoleon's  part,  but  there 
was  also  the  pressure  brought  to  bear  by 
Napoleon's  brothers,  to  prevent  this  sacrifice 
of  French  pride  and  possessions.  His  broth- 
ers Lucien  and  Joseph  heard  the  news  with 
astonishment  and  indignation.  Summoning 
their  courage  they  went  to  the  Tuileries  to 
protest,  and  were  admitted  to  find  the  impe- 
rious ruler  in  his  bath.  Napoleon  announced 
his  purpose  of  selling  Louisiana.  "  What  do 
you  think  of  it?  "  he  asked  Lucien.  "  I  flatter 
myself,"  replied  Lucien,  "  that  the  Chambers 
will  not  give  their  consent." 

The  First  Consul  retorted  from  his  bath  tub 
that  he  would  do  without  their  consent. 

Joseph  threatened  to  oppose  him  in  the 
Chambers.  He  declared  that  they  would  all 
be  punished  by  an  indignant  people.  At  this 
reply  Napoleon  lost  his  temper.  "  You  are 
insolent !  "  he  shouted,  starting  up,  and  then 
suddenly  plunging  back  into  his  bath  with 


LOUISIANA  AN  ACTIVE  ISSUE          75 

a  violence  that  sent  the  water  flying  into 
the  faces  of  Lucien  and  Joseph.  A  servant 
who  was  present,  frightened  at  the  scene,  fell 
fainting  on  the  floor.  Such  was  the  stormy 
reception  of  Napoleon's  decision  in  his  own 
family.  But  he  declared  that  his  purpose 
was  fixed  in  spite  of  the  Constitution  or  the 
Chambers.  And  at  the  last  Napoleon  threat- 
ened Lucien,  who  lingered  alone  to  maintain 
the  argument,  that  if  the  latter  undertook  open 
opposition  he  would  break  him  like  the  snuff- 
box which  he  hurled  angrily  upon  the  floor. 
And  so  the  Napoleonic  will  prevailed.1 

It  has  been  said  that  the  disregard  of  legal 
authority  and  of  the  wishes  of  the  French  peo- 
ple involved  in  this  arbitrary  decision  marked 
a  turning  point  in  Napoleon's  career.  His  act 
has  been  called  a  betrayal  of  his  country.  Yet 
after  this  he  became  the  Emperor  of  France, 
and  the  most  powerful  single  figure  of  his  time. 

1  This  amusing  and  yet  serious  bath-room  scene  is  de- 
scribed in  full  in  "  Lucien  Bonaparte  et  ses  Me'moires,"  and 
summarized  by  Henry  Adams,  and  by  Dr.  J.  K.  Ilosiner  in 
the  latter's  "  History  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase." 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE   PURCHASE   ARRANGED 

Closing  the  bargain.  The  terms  of  payment.  What  was  bought. 
Questions  as  to  West  Florida.  The  news  in  the  United 
States.  Federalist  opposition.  Debates  over  the  right  to 
buy  and  rule  foreign  territory.  The  treaty  ratified.  Provi- 
sions for  government. 

It  was  on  April  11  that  Livingston  was  sur- 
prised by  Talleyrand's  offer  of  the  whole  of 
V  .  . 

Louisiana.  The  next  day  Livingston,  recov- 
ering from  his  astonishment,  endeavored  to 
arrange  the  matter  definitely,  but  the  wily 
Talleyrand  delayed  lest  he  should  cheapen 
the  bargain  bv  seeming;  too  easier.  Livingston 

t/  O 

was  anxious  to  carry  the  affair  as  far  as  pos- 
sible before  Monroe  took  part. 

After  Monroe  arrived,  there  followed  a 
period  of  haggling  over  the  price  and  terms. 
The  price  first  mentioned  on  the  French  side 
was  a  hundred  million  francs  (§20,000,000), 


THE   PURCHASE  ARRANGED  7" 

with  a  provision  that  the  United  States  should 
pay  the  claims  of  American  citizens  against 
France  for  depredations  by  French  privateers, 
which  amounted  to  twenty  million  francs 
($4,000,000).  Then  Marbois,  who  presented 
this  offer,  dropped  to  eighty  million  francs 
($16,000,000)  for  the  territory  and  the  claims. 
Finally,  on  April  29,  the  Americans  agreed 
to  Marbois's  terms.  The  next  day,  April  30, 
their  agreement  was  submitted  to  Napoleon. 
April  30  was  adopted  as  the  date  of  the  treaty 
of  cession  and  the  convention  regarding  the 
payments,  although  the  documents  were  not 
actually  signed  until  a  few  days  later.1 

One  curious  feature  of  this  checkered  history 

*/ 

is  that  the  exact  boundaries  of  the  purchased 
territory  were  unknown.  The  treaty  simply 
described  the  province  of  Louisiana  "  with  the 

1  With  tins  the  work  of  the  American  negotiators  was 
practically  ended.  Livingston  resigned  his  post  the  next 
year  and  retired  from  public  life  ;  lint  the  rest  of  his 
days  were  full  of  a  usefulness  which  included  his  encour- 
agement of  Robert  Fulton,  the  father  of  the  steamboat. 
Monroe,  continuing  in  public  life,  rose  to  the  presidency  of 
the  United  States. 


78  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

same  extent"  that  it  had  under  Spain  and  ear- 
lier under  France.  The  eastern  boundary  was 
the  Mississippi  from  its  source  to  the  parallel 
of  thirty-one  degrees  ;  but  no  one  knew  where 
the  source  was,  and  the  eastern  boundary  below 
thirty -one  degrees  was  in  question,  although 
the  Americans  claimed  the  country  as  far  as 
the  Perdido  River.1  The  western  boundary 
was  supposed  to  be  the  mountains,  although 
little  was  known  regarding  them ;  and  the 
northern  limit  was  the  ill-defined  possessions 
of  Great  Britain. 

What  was  bought,  therefore,  was  a  vast  ex- 
panse/of territory  whose  precise  limits  no  one 
knew.  Again,  the  Floridas  were  not  mentioned 
in  the  treaty  because  they  had  not  been  ceded 
by  Spain,  although  the  acquisition  of  West 
Florida  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  river  Per- 
dido was  part  of  the  original  American  plan. 
All  that  the  commissioners  obtained  was 
a  verbal  promise  from  Napoleon  to  use  his 
good  offices  with  Spain  in  helping  the  United 
States  to  gain  West  Florida.  The  Americans 

1  Xow  the  boundary  between  Florida  and  Alabama. 


THE  PURCHASE  ARRANGED     79 

claimed  West  Florida  as  included  in  the  sale 
under  the  French  title.  The  claim  was  denied 
by  Spain,  but  in  1810  a  successful  local  revo- 
lution against  Spain  resulted  in  the  formal 
annexation  of  West  Florida  to  the  United 
States. 

The  exact  cost  of  the  Louisiana  territory 
was  sixty-four  million  francs,  in  the  form  of 
United  States  six  per  cent  bonds,  representing 
a  capital  of  $  11,250,000. l  In  addition  to  this 
the  American  government  agreed  to  assume 
and  pay  the  obligations  of  France  to  American 
citizens  for  French  attacks  upon  American 
shipping.  These  were  estimated  at  twenty 
million  francs,  or  $3,750,000,  making  the  total 
payment  $15,000,000.  Troubles  and  scandals 
arose  from  the  settlement  of  these  claims,  but 
that  forms  no  part  of  this  history. 

With  the  money  paid  for  the  Louisiana  ter- 
ritory Napoleon  had  intended  to  construct  a 
system  of  canals ;  but  war  broke  out  almost 

1  The  ultimate  cost  would  include  not  only  the  par  value 
.of  the  bonds  but  also  ten  years'  interest  and  the  costs  of  sur- 
veying, of  government  explorations,  and  of  selling  lands,  etc. 


80  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

immediately,  and  by  another  of  the  curious 
turns  of  fate  which  accompanied  the  whole 
affair,  this  money  was  spent  by  Napoleon 
in  preparations  for  an  invasion  of  England 
which  never  took  place. 

President  Jefferson  had  hoped  to  secure 
New  Orleans  and  West  Florida  at  a  cost  of 
not  more  than  $2.000,000.  But  there  came 
from  Paris  the  astonishing  tidings  that  the 
commissioners  had  bought  the  whole  Louisi- 
ana territory  and  had  agreed  to  pay  $15,000,- 
000.  The  great  news  was  promptly  seized  upon 
by  the  politicians  and  the  people.  The  party 
opposed  to  Jefferson,  the  Federalists,  attacked 
the  purchase.  'They  ridiculed  the  vague  stories 
told  of  the  unknown  interior,  and  condemned 
the  acquisition  of  a  wilderness ;  but  by  the 
majority  of  the  people  the  purchase  was 
approved.  'Nevertheless,  there  were  new  and 
serious  questions  to  be  settled  concerning 
the  rights  and  powers  of  the  United  States 
as  regarded  the  acquisition  of  foreign  terri- 
tory and  its  government.  They  were  ques- 
tions not  unlike  those  discussed  when  the 


THE  PURCHASE  ARRANGED     81 

United  States,  after  the  late  war  with  Spain, 
acquired  the  Philippines  and  Porto  Rico. 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON 


In  October,  1803,  Congress  met.  Jefferson 
himself  was  a  strict  constructionist  of  the  Con- 
stitution, and  believed  in  states  rights.  He 


82  LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 

held  that  Congress  had  only  such  powers  as 
were  definitely  delegated  to  it  and  such  as  were 
necessary  to  carry  out  the  delegated  powers. 
He  believed  that  this  treaty  providing  for  the 
incorporation  of  foreign  territory  was  in  vio- 
lation of  the  Constitution.  He  held  at  first 
that  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  would 
be  necessary  before  action  could  be  taken 
upon  the  treaty.  But  he  was  confronted  with 
a  practical  issue  of  grave  and  immediate  mo- 
ment. Statesmen  holding  views  as  extreme 
as  his  own  argued  for  the  constitutionality  of 
the  acquisition.  Jefferson  yielded  his  opinions 
to  the  practical  exigencies  of  the  situation, 
believing,  as  was  the  case,  that  the  popular 
view  would  approve  his  course.  Federalists, 
as  well  as  Republicans,  agreed  that  the  United 
States  could  acquire  territory.1 

As   to   the    status    of    the    inhabitants    of 
the  Louisiana  territory,  another  question  was 

1  Later  the  right  to  annex  territory  was  upheld  by  the  ' 
Supreme   Court.     Professor  McLaughlin,  "  History  of  the 
American  Nation,"  p.  2G4,  cites  the  case  of  Am.  Ins.  Co.  u. 
Canter,  1  Peters,  511. 


THE  PURCHASE  ARRANGED     83 

presented  which  was  seized  upon  by  the  Fed- 
eralists. The  treaty  contemplated  their  early 
admission  to  the  rights  of  citizens  of  the 
United  States, — Louisiana  was  not  to  be  a 
dependent  colony,  without  a  vote  or  the  pros- 
pect of  statehood.  This  was  bitterly  opposed 
by  the  Federalists.  It  was  argued  that  the 
vote  of  each  individual  state  was  necessary 
for  the  admission  of  a  new  state.  The  New 
England  Federalists,  foreseeing  a  lessening  of 
their  power  through  the  admission  of  south- 
ern and  western  states,  were  strenuous  antag- 
onists of  the  measure.  In  some  cases  there 
was  talk  of  secession. 

Again  the  treaty  gave  special  privileges 
to  the  vessels  of  France  and  Spain  at  New 
Orleans,  although  the  Constitution  required 
that  duties  should  be  uniform.  This  was 
defended  by  the  claim  that  "  Louisiana  is 
purchased  by  the  United  States  in  their 
federal  capacity,  and  is  in  the  nature  of  a 
colony  whose  commerce  may  be  regulated 
without  reference  to  the  Constitution."  The 
far-reaching  importance  of  these  arguments, 


84  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

and  of  the  precedent  established  by  the  ratifi- 
cation of  the  treaty,  has  been  illustrated  in 
the  discussions  over  the  recent  acquisition  of 
Porto  Rico  and  the  Philippines.1  The  discus- 
sion of  these  questions  was  long  and  bitter,  but 
the  treaty  was  ratified  October  19, 1803. 

After  the  treaty  was  ratified  and  the  bill  to 
provide  payment  for  the  purchase  was  passed 
still  another  question  arose,  —  How  should  the 
territory  be  governed  ?  In  spite  of  Federalist 
opposition  it  was  voted  that  until  Congress 
should  provide  a  temporary  government  all 
the  military,  civil,  and  judicial  powers  should 
be  exercised  by  persons  to  be  appointed  by  the 
President,  without  the  advice  or  consent  of 

1 "  This  broad  interpretation  of  the  treaty-making  power 
by  the  strict  constructionist  and  state  rights  party  itself, 
paved  the  way  for  an  imperial  expansion  of  the  United 
States.  Xot  only  that,  —  it  laid  the  foundations  for  a 
readjustment  of  sectional  power  within  the  Union." — • 
Professor  Frederick  J.  Turner,  in  the  Reciew  of  Reviews 
(May,  1903).  This  article,  -which  has  been  consulted  in 
the  preparation  of  this  chapter,  in  addition  to  Adams, 
McMaster,  and  others,  is  a  remarkably  clear  and  concise 
presentation  of  political  and  constitutional  phases  of  the 
purchase. 


THE  PUKCHA.SE  ARRANGED     85 

the  Senate.  This  act  was  approved  by  the 
President  on '  October  ol,  1803..  It  was  a 
temporary  measure  intended  to  apply  to  the 
taking  possession  of  the  new  country  rather 
than  to  its  permanent  occupation.  The  for- 
mal act  of  taking  over  Louisiana  was  the 
next  step  in  this  eventful  history. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

TRANSFER  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Louisiana  still  in  Spain's  hands.  Delivery  to  France.  Cession 
by  France  to  the  United  States.  A  country  without  gov- 
ernment. Congress  gives  the  President  power.  Importance 
of  the  precedents.  The  territory  divided.  A  last  foreign 
invasion. 

Another  curious  feature  of  this  history  is 
that  although  France  had  sold  Louisiana  to  the 
United  States,  it  had  not  yet  been  delivered  by 
Spain  to  France.  On  the  30th  of  November, 
1803,  however,  this  ceremony  was  formally  per- 
formed in  the  old  Cabildo  (City  Hall)  of  New 
Orleans.  The  French  commissioner,  Laussat, 
delivered  to  the  Spanish  commissioners  the 
order  of  the  king  of  Spain  for  the  transfer  of 
the  province  to  France,  and  showed  the  author- 
ity which  Napoleon  had  given  him  to  receive 
it.  Then  the  Spaniards  yielded  the  keys  of 
New  Orleans  and  absolved  the  people  from 

8G 


TRANSFER  TO  UNITED  STATES        87 

allegiance  to  Spain.  The  Spanish  flag  was  low- 
ered, the  French  tricolor  rose  in  its  place,  and 
the  reign  of  Spain  in  Louisiana  was  ended. 

The  next  step  was  the  formal  cession  to 
the  United  States,  and  there  were  reasons  for 
haste.  Spain  had  protested  against  the  act  of 
France  in  selling  the  territory,  for  there  was 
a  clause  in  the  original  treaty  which  forbade 
its  alienation.1  These  protests  were  so  strong 

JAn  interesting  modern  Spanish  view  of  the  Louisiana 
Purchase  has  been  afforded  by  Seilor  Jeronimo  Becker, 
archivist  of  the  ministry  of  state,  in  La  Espana  Moderna  for 
May,  11)():'».  This  writer  maintains  that  after  securing  the 
cession  of  Louisiana  back  to  France,  Talleyrand  assured  the 
Spanish  government  that  the  cession  was  desired  merely  for 
display  and  effect,  and  that  later,  on  the  payment  of  two 
million  dollars,  half  in  cash,  Louisiana  would  be  returned 
to  Spain. 

Seiior  Becker  also  states  that  in  1815  the  Spanish  govern- 
ment hoped  to  regain  Louisiana  through  the  action  of  the 
Congress  of  Vienna,  and  Labrador,  the  Spanish  representa- 
tive, was  instructed  to  make  the  attempt.  lie  saw  that  this 
was  impossible,  but  it  was  believed  in  Vienna  in  LSI  5  that 
the  English  were  in  possession  of  New  Orleans  and  therefore 
practically  of  Louisiana,  and  he  suggested  that  they  might 
be  willing  to  transfer  it  to  Spain,  — •  a  plan,  he  added,  which 
was  approved  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  Senor  Becker 
expresses  a  feeling  of  inherited  resentment  against  France 
on  account  of  the  sharp  practice  by  which  Napoleon  obtained 


88  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

that  Jefferson  even  prepared  to  meet  an  armed 
resistance  by  sending  a  small  military  force  un- 
der General  James  Wilkinson1  to  New  Orleans. 
Furthermore,  in  this  interval  there  was  no 
formal  government  in  that  city. 

Jefferson  appointed  William  C.  C.  Claiborne, 
governor  of  Mississippi  territory,  and  General 
Wilkinson  as  the  American  commissioners  to 
receive  Louisiana.  On  December  20  they  were 


Wi I.K i xsox' s  A rxor.K.v j-n 

escorted  into  the  city  by  American  troops  and 
were  received  by  Laussat  in  the  Ckibildo.  The 
ceremonies  performed  at  the  Spanish  cession 
twenty  days  before  were  repeated  now  for  the 

Louisiana  from  Spain  in  exchange  for  the  award  to  the 
Duke  of  Parma  of  the  so-called  kingdom  of  Etruria,  which 
remained  under  the  control  of  French  soldiers  after  Xapoleon 
had  sold  Louisiana  to  the  Americans  and  the  Americans 
were  claiming  the  Floridas.  But  he  shows  no  ill-will  at  the 
action  of  the  United  States. 

1  An  unfortunate  representative  of  the  United  States. 
His  apparent  willingness  to  prove  false  to  his  country  in 
connection  with  Burr's  plottings,  and  his  military  incom- 
petency,  have  not  been  palliated  by  his  acquittals. 


TRANSFER  TO    UNITED   STATES        89 

most  part,  with  one  vital  difference.  This  time 
the  flag  of  France  was  replaced  with  the  Stars 
and  Stripes.  It  was  the  outward  sign  of  a  new 
destiny,  the  beginning  of  a  new  life  richer  and 
greater  than  any  one  who  watched  the  unfurl- 
ing of  the  flag  could  have  dared  to  imagine. 

Claiborne  assured  the  people  that  their  lib- 
erty, property,  and  religion  were  safe,  and  that 
they  should  never  again  be  transferred.  His 
assurance  must  have  meant  little  to  his  hear- 
ers, in  view  of  the  many  changes  of  the  past. 


CLAIBOIIXK'S  ArTO(;i;.vPii 

"Ninety-one  years  before,"  says  Professor  Mc- 
Master,  "when  scarcely  a  thousand  white  men 
dwelt  on  her  soil,  Louis  XIV  had  farmed 
Louisiana  to  Antoine  Crozat,  the  merchant 
monopolist  of  his  day.  Crozat,  unable  to  use 
it,  made  it  over  in  1  TIT  to  John  Law,  director- 
general  of  the  Mississippi  Company,  which 
surrendered  it  in  1T31  to  Louis  XV.  who  gave 
it  in  1TG2  to  the  king  of  Spain,  who  made  it 


90  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

over  to  Napoleon,  who  sold  it  to  the  United 
States."  No  wonder  a  promise  that  there  would 
be  no  more  changes  was  received  with  doubt. 
Yet,  except  for  a  short  interval  of  fifteen 
months  in  the  course  of  the  Civil  War,  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  have  continued  to  wave 
over  New  Orleans. 

For  a  short  time  Louisiana,  although  Amer- 
ican territory,  was  without  American  laws 
or  custom-house  regulations.  The  merchants 
found  themselves  continuing  to  pay  the  ob- 
noxious duties  exacted  by  the  laws  of  Spain, 
and  they  were  not  slow  to  protest.  But  early 
in  1804  Congress  took  action.  After  much 
discussion  a  law  was  passed  dividing  the  pur- 
chased country  at  the  thirty-third  parallel, 
which  afterward  became  the  dividing  line 
between  Arkansas  and  Louisiana.  The  coun- 
try north  of  that  line  was  called  the  district 
of  Louisiana,  and  was  placed  under  the  terri- 
torial government  of  the  Indiana  territory. 
There  were  but  few  white  people  then,  in  this 
great  stretch  of  country,  but  lower  Louisiana, 
which  was  called  the  territory  of  Orleans, 


TRANSFER  TO    UNITED   STATES        91 

contained  some  fifty  thousand  people,1  or  more 
than  the  territory  of  Ohio  in  1800. 

It  was  provided  that  the  territory  of  Orleans 
was  to  be  governed  by  officers  appointed  by 
the  President.  This  was  a  step  of  great  his- 
torical importance.  First,  the  President  had 
bought  a  foreign  colony  without  its  consent 
and  had  annexed  it.  Secondly,  he  assumed 
control  of  its  government,  and  in  both  meas- 
ures he  was  sustained  by  Congress.  This 
was  done  without  any  changes  in  the  Con- 
stitution. Another  striking  feature  was  that, 
although  the  treaty  with  France  provided  for 
full  citizenship  for  the  people  of  the  Louisiana 
territory,  this  was  denied  them,  and  a  govern- 
ment was  established  which  was  not  elected 
by  themselves  but  appointed  from  Washington. 
However,  in  spite  of  the  surprises,  the  contra- 
dictions and  compromises  which  accompanied 
the  strange  history  of  Louisiana,  it  became  and 
it  has  remained  American  territory. 

Only  once,  since  it  passed  into  our  keeping, 
has  Louisiana  been  threatened  by  a  foreign 
invader.  This  was  in  1815,  at  the  end  of  our 


92  LOUISIANA  PUBCHASE 

war  with  England.  But  Sir  Edward  Pa  ken- 
ham's  army  of  twenty  thousand  veteran  British 
soldiers,  who  came  to  conquer  Louisiana,  was 


ANDREW  JACKSON  RIDING-  ALONG  THE  LINKS  AFTER  THE 
BATTLE  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

defeated  by  the  forces  led  by  Andrew  Jackson 
in  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  January  8, 1815. 
As  if  to  continue  the  list  of  strange  events 
which  have  been  connected  with  Louisiana,  this 


TRANSFER  TO  UNITED  STATES        93 

battle  was  fought  after  peace  had  been  arranged 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain. 
Two  other  events  in  our  domestic  history 
have  menaced  the  integrity  of  Louisiana. 
Associated  with  the  pacific  Jefferson  as  Vice 
President  was  the  brilliant,  unscrupulous,  and 
tragic  figure  of  Aaron  Burr.  Burr's  connec- 
tion with  the  President  who  acquired  Loui- 
siana added  another  dramatic  element  to  the 
history  of  plots  which  involved  the  West.  As 
to  the  exact  nature  of  Burr's  schemes  or  con- 
spiracy in  1805-1806,  students  have  differed. 
The  usual  belief  has  been  that  Burr,  spurred 
by  diseased  ambition  and  wounded  vanity, 
planned  the  separation  of  the  Southwest  from 
the  United  States  and  the  foundation  of  an 
empire  under  his  own  rule.1  Later  researches2 
go  to  indicate  that  Burr  proposed  to  organize 
a  filibustering  expedition  for  the  invasion  and 
occupation  of  the  Spanish  territory  to  the 

1  See  "  History  of  the  United  States  of  America,"  by 
Henry  Adams,  for  the  argument  that  Burr  proposed  both 
treason  to  his  country  and  filibustering. 

2  See   >'The   Aaron   Burr  Conspiracy,"   by   Dr.   W.   F. 
McCaleb. 


94  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

south.  At  the  outset,  at  least,  Burr's  designs 
were  probably  little  better  than  treason, 
although  his  final  purpose  seems  to  have 
changed.  Another  figure  in  the  history  of 
Louisiana,  Wilkinson,  who  was  governor  of 
New  Orleans,  was  implicated  in  Burr's  plots 
and  sought  to  clear  himself  at  Burr's  expense. 
While  this  plot,  however,  left  the  Loui- 
siana Purchase  unchanged,  our  Civil  War 
made  an  inroad,  fortunately  only  temporary, 
upon  its  integrity.  In  the  fateful  -spring  of 
1861  the  states  of  Louisiana  and  Arkansas 
seceded  from  the  Union  and  joined  the  Con- 
federacy. But  in  1868  the  constitutional  rela- 
tions of  these  states  to  the  Union  were  fully 
reestablished,  and  since  then  there  has  been 
and  is  likely  to  be  no  break  in  the  relation 
of  Louisiana  to  the  United  States. 


LOUISIANA 


PART  II 
THE   LEWIS   AND   CLARK   EXPEDITION 


CHAPTER  IX 

EXPLORING  LOUISIANA 

An  unknown  interior.  Jefferson's  early  interest  in  explora- 
tion. Ledyarcl's  vain  attempt.  Jefferson  selects  Lewis 
and  Clark.  Who  they  were.  Their  instructions.  The  un- 
certainty as  to  their  route. 

The  little  that  had  been  learned  by  1803 
of  the  interior  of  Louisiana  came  for  the  most 
part  from  the  stories  of  Indians  and  of  trap- 
pers. There  were  tales  of  vast  prairies  far 
in  the  interior,  covered  with  herds  of  buffalo, 
and  clothed  with  grass  "  because  the  soil  was 
far  too  rich  for  the  growth  of  trees."  In 
the  north.,  as  Jefferson  reported  to  Congress, 
there  were  great  bluffs  which  were  ''  faced  with 
lime  and  free  stone,  carved  into  various  shapes 
and  figures  by  the  hand  of  nature,  and  [they] 
afford  the  appearance  of  a  multitude  of  antique 
towers."  While  this  report  was  true,  since  it 
referred  to  the  strange  rock  forms  of  the  Bad 


98 


LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 


Lands  of  Dakota,  it  was  laughed  at  by  Jeffer- 
son's opponents. 

Another  story  that  Jefferson  gravely  repeated 
to  Congress  was  of  a  wonderful  mountain  of 


BAD  LANDS  OF  DAKOTA 

salt  some  thousand  miles  up  the  Missouri.  It 
was  said  that  this  mountain  was  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  miles  long  and  forty-five  miles 
wide;  that  there  were  no  trees  or  shrubs  on 
it,  but  that  it  was  one  huge  mass  of  glittering 
white.  If  any  one  doubted  this  fabulous  tale, 
he  was  assured  that  samples  of  the  salt  had 
been  shown  at  St.  Louis.  Even  this  failed  to 


EXPLORING    Lot'lSIANA  99 

convince  Jefferson's  opponents,  the  Federal- 
ists. One  newspaper  writer  suggested  that  the 
salt  mountain  was  Lot's  wife.  Another  writer 
imagined  a  salt  eagle  on  the  top  and  a  salt 
mammoth  climbing  up  the  side.  There  were 
other  stories  of  giant  Indians  as  mythical  as 
the  salt  mountain.  From  these  strange  reports 
one  can  realize  how  little  was  known  of  a  part 
of  our  country  which  is  now  so  familiar. 

We  have  seen  that  Jefferson  did  not  intend 
to  buy  the  whole  Louisiana  territory,  but  he 
proposed  an  exploration  of  the  West  long  be- 
fore the  purchase  was  made.  In  1785  he  was 
appointed  minister  to  France,  and  in  Paris 
he  met  John  Ledyard,  an  American  traveler. 
Ledyard  had  accompanied  the  famous  naviga- 
tor, Captain  Cook,  on  his  last  voyage,  when 
Cook  sailed  up  the  western  coast  of  North 
America  toward  Bering  Strait,  and  then  sailed 
south  to  Hawaii,  where  he  wras  slain  by  the 
natives.  Ledyard  was  eager  to  continue  his 
travels,  and  Jefferson  proposed  that  he  should 
cross  northern  Europe  and  Asia  to  Kamchatka, 
sail  over  to  the  present  Alaska,  and  then  go 


100  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

south  "to  the  latitude  of  the  Missouri  and 
penetrate  to  and  through  that  to  the  United 
States."  Jefferson's  language  shows  how  un- 
certain the  knowledge  of  the  time  was.  No 
one  knew  where  the  Missouri  River  began. 
Ledyard  undertook  this  adventurous  journey, 
and  on  his  overland  route  actually  arrived 
within  two  hundred  miles  of  Kamchatka ;  but 
there  he  was  arrested  by  Russian  soldiers  and 
forced  to  return.  This  was  the  end  of  a  plan 
which  might  have  added  a  wonderful  chapter 
to  the  history  of  American  exploration. 

But  Jefferson's  zealous  desire  for  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  West  continued  unabated.  In  1792 
he  proposed  to  the  American  Philosophical 
Society  to  raise  money  for  an  exploration  of 
the  West.  He  suggested  that  some  one  should 
do  this  by  "  ascending  the  Missouri,  crossing 
the  Stony  [Rocky]  Mountains,  and  descend- 
ing the  nearest  river  to  the  Pacific."  This 
suggestion  brought  a  prompt  application  from 
Captain  Meriwether  Lewis,  of  the  United  States 
army,  who  was  eager  to  make  the  journey. 
But  Captain  Lewis's  time  had  not  yet  come. 


LEWIS 

(From  a  print  in  the  Annlcctif  M<t<jn~ine  (1815)  reproducing  the  drawing 
by  St.  Merain,  which  belonged  to  Captain  Clark) 


EXPLORING  LOUISIANA  101 

The  offer  of  Andre  Michaux,  a  French  botanist, 
was  accepted,  and  he  actually  started  011  his 
journey.  But  when  he  had  reached  Kentucky 
on  his  way  west  he  was  overtaken  by  an 
order  from  the  French  minister,  directing  him 
to  return  and  engage  in  other  work.  Thus 
Jefferson's  second  attempt  at  the  exploration 
of  the  Louisiana  territory  also  resulted  in 
failure. 

But  the  proverbial  third  attempt  succeeded 
brilliantly.  Before  the  Louisiana  territory  had 
actually  passed  into  our  hands  Jefferson  and 
others  felt  that  it  was  quite  time  to  learn  more 
definitely  what  this  strange  country  contained. 
In  January,  1803,  he  seized  the  opportunity 
offered  by  the  need  of  regulating  trade  with 
the  Indians,  to  send  a  confidential  message  to 
Congress,  in  which  he  advised  an  exploration. 
Congress  approved,  and  an  appropriation  of 
money  wras  made.  President  Jefferson  selected 
Captain  Lewis  as  leader  of  the  expedition  and 
associated  with  him  Captain  William  Clark.1 

1  Meriwether  Lewis  was  born  near  Charlottesville,  Vir- 
ginia, in  177-1.  At  eighteen  he  was  a  farmer.  In  179-1  he 


102  LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 

There  were,  therefore,  two  leaders,  but  they 
did  their  memorable  work  without  jealousy 
or  trouble.  Both  were  men  of  courage  and 
resolution,  fully  equipped  by  character  and 
training  for  the  work  which  lay  before  them. 
Lewis  possessed  a  rare  power  of  discipline  and 
executive  ability,  and  a  considerable  scientific 
knowledge.  Clark  was  peculiarly  familiar 
with  Indian  habits,  and  his  military  training 
had  borne  good  fruits. 

served  in  the  militia  during  the  "  whisky  insurrection,"  and 
later  obtained  a  commission  in  the  regular  army.  Between 
1S01  and  1803  he  was  the  private  secretary  of  President 
Jefferson.  In  1806  he  was  made  governor  of  Missouri  ter- 
ritory, lie  died  in  1800. 

William  Clark,  also  a  Virginian,  was  born  in  1770,  the 
brother  of  General  George  Rogers  Clark  who  conquered  the 
old  Xorthwest  for  the  United  States  in  the  Revolutionary 
War.  In  the  boyhood  of  William  Clark  his  family  removed 
to  Kentucky,  then  "  the  dark  and  bloody  ground,"  as  it  was 
called  from  the  frequent  attacks  of  the  Indians.  With 
such  an  early  experience  it  was  not  strange  that  Clark 
should  become  a  soldier.  But  in  1700  he  resigned  from  the 
army  on  account  of  ill  health.  lie  took  up  his  residence  in 
St.  Louis,  where  he  lived  until  President  Jefferson  offered 
him,  in  1803.  a  military  appointment  as  second  lieutenant 
in  the  regular  army  and  the  joint  command  of  the  expe- 
dition. The  title  of  captain  came  from  his  former  rank 
in  the  militia  of  the  Northwest. 


EXPLORING  LOUISIANA  103 

Among  the  careful  instructions  given  to 
Lewis  and  Clark  we  find  that  they  were  "  to 
explore  the  Missouri  River  and  such  principal 
streams  of  it,  as  by  its  course  and  communi- 
cation with  the  waters  of  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
whether  the  Columbia,  Oregon,  Colorado,  or 
any  other  river,  may  offer  the  most  direct 
and  practicable  water-communication  across 
the  continent,  for  the  purposes  of  commerce." 
Since  the  Missouri  rises  east  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  the  Colorado  far  to  the  southward, 
and  the  Columbia  flows  to  the  Pacific  on  the 
western  side  of  the  mountains,  Jefferson's 
words  illustrate  the  vague  knowledge  of  the 
time. 

The  explorers  were  to  take  frequent  obser- 
vations of  latitude  and  longitude  and  to  note 
the  courses  of  the  river,  points  of  portage,  and 
all  important  features.  Several  copies  of  these 
observations  were  to  be  made.  The  thought- 
ful Jefferson  recommended  that  one  copy  be  on 
"  the  cuticular  membrane  of  the  paper-birch,  as 
less  liable  to  injury  from  damp  than  common 
paper." 


104  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Every  feature  of  Indian  life  was  to  be  studied 
with  the  greatest  care.  The  explorers  were  to 
note  the  soil  and  face  of  the  country,  its  vege- 
table products,  its  animals,  the  remains  of  any 
animals  "  which  may  be  deemed  dead  or  ex- 
tinct,"1 the  mineral  productions  of  every  kind, 
volcanic  appearances,  and  climate.  They  were 
to  investigate  the  opportunities  for  trade  and 
cultivate  the  friendship  of  the  Indians.  On 
the  Pacific  coast  they  were  to  see  whether  the 
fur  trade  of  the  far  Northwest  could  not  be 
conducted  through  the  Missouri  and  the  United 
States  instead  of  by  circumnavigation  from 
Nootka  Sound  on  the  Pacific  coast. 

Clearly,  the  explorers  had  plenty  of  work 
laid  out  for  them.  How  uncertain  the  outcome 
was  in  Jefferson's  mind  is  shown  by  his  direc- 
tions that  they  should  return  from  Oregon 
by  sea,  "  by  the  way  either  of  Cape  Horn  or 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,"  in  case  the  return 
overland  seemed  "  imminently  dangerous." 

1  This  is  peculiarly  interesting  in  view  of  the  wonderful 
fossil  remains  found  of  late  years  in  the  Bad  Lands  of 
Dakota  and  elsewhere  in  the  Northwest. 


EXPLORING  LOUISIANA  105 

Furthermore,  he  said,  the  American  consuls  at 
Batavia  in  Java,  in  the  Isle  of  France,  and  at 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  would  furnish  money. 
When  we  think  of  the  present  ease  and  luxury 
of  travel  across  the  continent  to  Oregon  it  is 
hard  to  realize  that  these  doubts  and  difficul- 
ties existed  only  a  hundred  years  ago. 


CHAPTER  X 
PREPARING  FOR  THE  JOURNEY 

An  uninformed  Spaniard.     A  company  of  picked  men.     Some 
curious  supplies.     The  journal  of  the  expedition. 

On  July  5,  1803,  Captain  Lewis  left  Wash- 
ington for  Pittsburg.  With  Captain  Clark  he 
gathered  stores  and  recruited  his  men  from  the 
military  stations  along  the  Ohio  River.  All 
this  took  time.  It  was  not  until  December 
that  they  reached  St.  Louis.  They  intended 
to  pass  the  winter  at  La  Charrette,  the  upper- 
most settlement  on  the  Missouri.  But  this 
was  still  held  by  the  Spaniards.  Although 
Louisiana  by  this  time  had  passed  from  Spain 
to  France  and  from  France  to  the  United 
States,  the  Spanish  commandant  had  not  yet 
been  officially  notified.  At  that  day,  when 
railroads  were  unknown,  it  required  a  month 
and  a  half  for  letters  from  eastern  cities  to 

100 


PREPARING  FOR  THE  JOURNEY     107 

reach  St.  Louis.  The  commandant  refused 
to  allow  this  armed  force  to  enter  Spanish  ter- 
ritory. Lewis  and  Clark  therefore  recrossed 
the  Mississippi  to  the  eastern  or  American 
side,  and  passed  the  winter  of  1803-1804  at 


WASHINGTON  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS  AGO 

the  mouth  of  Wood  River,  a  little  above 
St.  Louis.  While  they  are  waiting  there  we 
may  inspect  their  force  and  their  equipment 
for  the  great  journey  which  lay  before  them. 

Picked  men  were  needed  for  such  perilous 
work.     They  wrere  chosen  wisely  with  a  view 


108  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

to  their  special  fitness  for  the  task.  There  were 
fourteen  soldiers  selected  from  a  large  number 
who  had  volunteered  from  the  regular  army. 
There  \vere  nine  young  frontiersmen  from 
Kentucky,  men  who  had  used  the  rifle  from 
boyhood  in  hunting  and  in  Indian  \varfare. 
There  wrere  two  French  canoemen,  or  voya- 
geurs,  one  of  whom  could  speak  many  Indian 
languages,  while  the  other  wras  a  skilled  hunter. 
These  men  were  all  enrolled  as  privates  in  the 
army,  and  with  a  negro  servant  of  Captain 
Clark  they  made  up  the  force.  Three  of  the 
men  w^ere  appointed  sergeants.  In  addition, 
a  corporal  and  six  soldiers  with  nine  boatmen 
were  sent  to  accompany  the  expedition  until 
they  should  reach  the  Mandan  Indians,  who 
dwelt  near  the  present  site  of  Bismarck,  North 
Dakota.  It  was  a  small  force,  but  a  large  com- 
pany would  have  had  difficulties  over  supplies, 
and  would  have  excited  the  suspicions  and  hos- 
tility of  the  Indians. 

The  first  necessities  were  food,  clothing, 
tools,  the  flintlock  rifles  of  the  time,  and  a 
supply  of  powder,  ball,  and  flints.  But  it  was 


FRENCH  FORT  AT  SAINT  Louis 


PREPARING  FOR  THE  JOURNEY     109 

necessary  also  to  provide  for  the  Indians 
who  might  be  encountered.  In  order  to  make 
friends  of  them  there  were  fourteen  bales  and 
one  box  of  gold-laced  coats,  medals,  flags, 
knives  and  tomahawks,  beads,  looking-glasses, 
and  paints,  which  were  to  be  given  as  presents. 
The  expedition's  own  stores  were  contained 
in  seven  bales  and  a  box. 

For  transportation  there  was  first  a  keel  boat 
fifty-five  feet  long  and  drawing  three  feet  of 
water.  This  was  decked  over  at  bow  and 
stern,  thus  forming  a  forecastle  and  a  cabin. 
The  middle  was  covered  with  lockers,  which 
could  be  raised  to  form  breastworks  in  case 
of  attack.  This  boat  had  one  large  sail  and 
twenty-two  oars.  There  were  two  other  boats, 
both  open,  one  with  six  and  one  with  seven 
oars.  Two  horses  were  to  be  led  along  the 
banks  for  the  use  of  the  hunters. 

One  of  the  strange  turns  of  fate  which 
appear  so  often  in  the  history  of  Louisiana 
awaited  the  records  of  this  expedition.  The 
journals  of  the  explorers  were  kept  most  care- 
fully. President  Jefferson  used  some  of  this 


110  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

material  in  his  messages  to  Congress,  and  his 
citations  were  republished  under  a  false  claim 
that  they  gave  the  complete  narrative.  The 
actual  journals  were  revised  and  largely  re- 
written by  Nicholas  Biddle  of  Philadelphia, 
but  it  so  happened  that  another  was  able  to 
claim  the  editorship,  and  they  were  published 
in  1814  with  the  name  of  Paul  Allen  on  the 
title-page  as  editor.  This  Biddle  edition  was 
republished  in  several  foreign  countries.  The 
story  of  the  Lewis  and  Clark  expedition,  as  told 
in  this  volume,  is  taken  from  the  Biddle  text.1 

1  There  have  been  many  different  editions,  ranging  from 
the  elaborate  and  carefully  annotated  edition  of  Dr.  Elliott 
Coues,  to  inexpensive  small  reprints.  An  abridged  edition 
was  published  at  Xew  York  in  1842  and  reprinted  several 
times.  Mention  should  be  made  of  William  R.  Lighton's 
excellent  "Lewis  and  Clark,"  and  the  useful  condensed 
narrative  prepared  by  the  late  Xoah  Brooks  in  1901. 

But  with  all  this  array  of  editions  it  lias  so  happened 
that  the  revised  Biddle  text  has  always  been  followed. 
The  original  journals  have  not  been  reprinted  as  the 
explorers  wrote  them,  although  Mr.  Reuben  G.  Thwaites 
is  now  engaged  in  preparing  them  for  publication. 


CHAPTER  XI 
STARTING  FOE  THE  WILDERNESS 

Trappers  and  Indians.  Across  Missouri.  The  first  sight  of 
buffalo.  Turning  northward.  A  council  with  the  Indians 
near  Council  Bluffs.  An  odd  way  of  fishing.  A  country 
full  of  game. 

On.  May  14,  1804,  the  travelers  left  their 
camp  at  the  mouth  of  the  Wood  (now  the 
Du  Bois)  River  near  St.  Louis. 

The  route  before  them  was  up  the  Missouri 
and  the  Yellowstone  on  the  eastern  side  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  over  the  mountains  and 
down  Lewis's  River  (now  known  as  Salmon 
River),  the  Clearwater,  and  the  Columbia  on 
the  western  side.  The  country  which  they 
were  to  pass  through  has  since  been  divided 
into  Missouri,  Kansas,  Iowa,  Nebraska,  South 
Dakota,  North  Dakota,  Idaho,  Washington, 
and  Oregon.  The  total  length  of  the  jour- 
ney was  to  be  some  eight  thousand  miles. 

111 


112  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

It  was  to  last  from  May,  1804,  to  September, 
1806.  From  April,  1805,  to  August,  1806, 
they  were  to  be  wholly  shut  off  from  the 
civilized  world. 

It  was  not  until  four  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon of  the  14th  that  they  finished  their  pack- 
ing and  pushed  off  their  boats,  and  they  had 
made  only  four  miles  wrhen  night  forced  them 
to  land  for  the  first  camp  of  the  journey  near 
Cold  Water  Creek,  just  above  Bellefontaine. 

At  St.  Charles,  which  bears  the  same  name 
to-day,  they  were  overtaken  on  May  21  by  Cap- 
tain Lewis,  who  had  been  detained  at  St.  Louis, 
and  that  afternoon  they  started  on  in  the  face 
of  wind  and  rain. 

A  few  days  later  they  met  some  canoes 
laden  with  furs  obtained  among  the  "Mahar," 
or  Omaha,  Indians.  These  meetings  are  of  in- 
terest because  the  trappers  and  the  fur  traders 
were  the  real  pioneers  of  the  far  West.  Their 
work  was  the  chief  industry  of  that  great  region 
for  the  first  forty  years  of  the  last  century. 

On  June  1  the  expedition  camped  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Osage  River,  named  from  the 


STARTING  FOR  THE  WILDERNESS      113 

Osage  Indians.  The  Dakotan  name  of  these 
Indians  was  the  Wabashas,  from  which  comes 
the  name  Wabash.  They  believed  themselves 
descended  from  a  snail  and  a  beaver,  and  for 
a  long  time  they  held  the  beaver  sacred.  But 
the  demand  for  furs  proved  stronger  than  the 
tradition,  and  in  spite  of  relationship  the  bea- 
vers suffered  from  the  fur  hunters. 

Another  camp  was  made  at  Moreau  Creek,  a 
little  below  the  present  Jefferson  City.  French 
fur  traders  were  met,  and  at  Little  Manitou 
Creek  (now  Moniteau  Creek  in  Missouri  geog- 
raphies) the  explorers  saw  a  strange  figure 
resembling  "the  bust  of  a  man  with  the  horns 
of  a  stag,"  which  had  been  painted  by  the 
Indians  on  a  projecting  rock. 

As  they  went  on  they  entered  the  country 
of  the  Ayauway  Indians,  which  was  one  of 
the  many  ways  of  spelling  lowas.  Here  they 
found  deer  and  bears,  and  one  of  the  hunters 
brought  in  a  remarkable  story  of  a  small  lake 
where  "  he  heard  a  snake  making  a  guttural 
noise  like  a  turkey."  The  venison  which  the 
hunters  obtained  was  frequently  "jerked"  for 


114  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

preservation ;  that  is,  it  was  cut  into  ribbons 
and  dried  in  the  sun. 

The  expedition  had  now  advanced  some 
two  hundred  and  sixty  miles  up  the  Missouri, 
to  a  point  between  Saline  and  Carroll  counties, 
which  lies  not  far  from  the  center  of  the  state 
of  Missouri.  Continuing  a  journey  which  for 
the  time  was  comparatively  uneventful,  they 
crossed  the  state  of  Missouri  on  their  steady 
way  up  the  river,  and  on  June  26  they  reached 
the  mouth  of  the  Kansas  River,  which  flows 
easterly  through  the  state  of  Kansas.  Here 
they  found  a  village  of  Kansas  Indians,  most 
of  whom  were  away  on  the  plains  "  hunting 
for  buffalo,  which  our  hunters  have  seen  for 
the  first  time." 

This  home  of  buffalo  hunters  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Kansas  River  has  now  given  place  to  Kan- 
sas City,  Missouri,  and  Kansas  City,  Kansas. 

At  this  point  the  Missouri  turns  northwest- 
erly on  the  ascent,  and  the  explorers  were  on 
a  straighter  course  to  their  destination.  On 
the  left,  ascending,  are  now  the  Kansas  coun- 
ties of  Leavenworth,  Atchison,  and  Doniphan, 


STARTING  FOR  THE  WILDERNESS    115 

and  on  the  right  the  Missouri  counties  of 
Platte,  Buchanan,  Andrew,  and  Holt ;  while 
above  Kansas  City  they  passed  the  sites  of 
the  future  cities  of  Leavenworth,  Atchison, 
and  St.  Joseph.  Nearly  all  the  points  men- 
tioned in  their  narrative  have  been  identified, 


IN  THI:  DAYS  OF  THE  BUFFALO  HUNTER 

but  it  will  be  more  interesting  to  follow  the 
story  of  their  adventures  than  to  go  far  into 
geographical  details. 

By  the  middle  of  July  they  had  reached 
Nebraska  and  Iowa.  The  hunters  found  deer 
and  wild  geese,  one  boat  was  nearly  wrecked 
011  a  sand  bar  in  a  storm,  and  there  was  some 


116  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

illness  which  was  thought  to  be  due  to  their 
drinking  the  muddy  river  water.  On  July  21 
they  reached  the  mouth  of  the  great  Platte 
River,  where  at  night  many  wolves  were  seen 
and  heard. 

Some  ten  miles  above  the  Platte  River  the 
explorers  camped  on  the  east  side  of  the  Mis- 
souri, probably  about  ten  miles  below  the  pres- 
ent cities  of  Council  Bluffs  and  Omaha.  There 
they  dried  their  provisions  and  prepared  let- 
ters to  be  sent  to  the  President  when  the 
chance  came.  The  hunters  saw  deer  and  tur- 
keys; there  were  many  wild  grapes,  and  one 
man  caught  a  white  catfish. 

Messengers  were  sent  to  ask  the  Pawnee 
Indians  to  visit  them,  but  the  Indians  wrere 
away  hunting  the  buffalo.  A  few  days  later, 
however,  after  the  explorers  had  advanced 
further  northward,  they  succeeded  in  reaching 
them,  and  their  first  formal  council  with  them 
was  held  on  August  3.  Some  fourteen  Ottoe 
(or  Otto)  and  Missouri  Indians  were  assem- 
bled under  an  awning  formed  of  the  mainsail. 
They  were  informed  that  the  United  States 


STARTING  FOR  THE  WILDERNESS      117 

now  ruled  the  country  and  promised  them  pro- 
tection. The  chiefs  expressed  their  joy  and 
asked  to  be  commended  to  the  Great  Father 
(the  President).  They  requested  that  arms  be 
given  them  and  that  they  be  protected  from 
their  enemies,  the  Omahas,  which  was  prom- 
ised. Then  followed  a  distribution  of  presents, 
medals,  paint,  garters,  and  cloth  ornaments, 
with  a  canister  of  powder  and  a  bottle  of 
whisky,  —  the  last  certainly  an  unfortunate 
gift.  Then  the  explorers  fired  their  air  gun, 
which  astonished  the  Indians  greatly,  and  this 
ended  the  ceremonies  of  the  first  council. 

The  name  of  the  city  of  Council  Bluffs  comes 
from  this  meeting,  but  the  actual  council  was 
held  on  the  west  side  of  the  river  and  several 
miles  above  the  city. 

A  few  days  later  the  travelers  saw  a  large 
mound  with  a  pole  fixed  in  the  center,  on  a 
sandstone  bluff,  and  learned  that  it  was  the 
grave  of  a  chief  named  Blackbird,  who  died 
of  smallpox,  from  which  the  tribe  had  suf- 
fered seriously.  Blackbird  was  described  by 
another  traveler  as  a  chief  whose  fame  was 


118  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

due  largely  to  the  fact  that  he  had  obtained 
from  a  trader  some  arsenic,  which  he  used  to 
poison  rivals  and  enemies. 

While  the  party  were  camping  and  waiting 
for  a  council  with  the  ivMahar"  (Omaha) 
Indians.,  an  odd  form  of  fishing  was  practiced. 
Some  of  the  men  made  a  drag  of  willows  and 
bark  and  swept  the  creek  hard  by,  catching 
hundreds  of  pike,  bass,  fish  resembling  salmon 
trout,  red  horse,  buffalo  fish,  rockfish,  perch, 
and  catfish. 

The  Ottoe  Indians  of  the  first  council  then 
reappeared  with  others.  They  were  asked  to 
explain  their  trouble  with  the  Omahas,  which 
proved  to  be  due  to  their  desire  to  avenge  the 
death  of  their  brethren  of  the  Missouris,  who 
had  been  killed  by  the  Omahas  while  attempt- 
ing to  steal  horses.  The  only  result  of  this 
conference  was  the  distribution  of  more  pres- 
ents, since  no  Omahas  had  come,  and  a  peace 
could  not  be  arranged  without  them. 

A  little  below  Sioux  City  the  first  death 
occurred  in  the  expedition.  Sergeant  Charles 
.Floyd  died  of  colic  and  was  buried  on  a  bluff 


STARTING  FOR  THE  WILDERNESS     119 

about  a  mile  below  Floyd's  River.  Patrick 
Gass,  who  kept  a  journal  of  the  expedition  on 
his  own  account  which  was  afterwards  pub- 
lished, was  elected  sergeant  in  Floyd's  place. 
Not  far  from  this  spot  they  learned  that  there 
was  a  quarry  of  red  pipestone  highly  prized 
by  the  Indians  for  pipes. 

The  abundance  of  game  which  was  then 
found  in  Nebraska,  Iowa,  and  elsewhere 
along  the  route,  is  indicated  by  the  record 
of  August  23.  "  On  the  north  side  [this  is 
properly  the  east  side  of  the  river]  is  an  exten- 
sive and  delightful  prairie,  which  we  called 
Buffalo  prairie,  from  our  having  here  killed 
our  first  butfalo.  Two  elk  swam  the  river 
to-day  and  were  fired  at,  but  escaped ;  a  deer 
was  killed  from  the  boat ;  one  beaver  was 
killed,  and  several  prairie-wolves  were  seen." 


CHAPTER  XIT 
IX  SOUTH  DAKOTA 

A  haunted  mountain.  Among  the  Sioux.  A  curious  frater- 
nity. Some  new  animals.  Trouble  with  the  Tetons.  The 
first  meeting  with  the  grizzly  bear.  Reaching  the  Arik- 
ara  l  Indians.  The  approach  of  cold  weather. 

By  late  August  the  explorers  were  entering 
the  present  South  Dakota.  There  they  exam- 
ined a  singularly  symmetrical  mound  in  the 
middle  of  the  plains.  The  Indians  believed 
this  mound  to  be  the  abode  of  little  spirits  or 
devils  not  over  eighteen  inches  in  height,  with 
large  heads,  and  armed  with  bows  and  arrows 
which  were  always  ready  for  use  against  any 
one  who  should  approach.  But  Lewis  and 
Clark  "  saw  none  of  these  wicked  little  spirits, 

1  "  Aricaris,  commonly  called  Rickarees,  Rickrees,  or 
Rees.  The  accepted  spelling  is  now  Arikara."  —  Coues's 
"Lewis  and  Clark,"  Vol.  I,  p.  143.  In  the  journal  this 
is  spelled  Rickara. 

120 


SOUTH  DAKOTA 


121 


or  any  place  for  them  except  some  small 
holes  scattered  over  the  top."  This  tradition 
is  preserved  in  the  modern  name  of  Spirit 
Mound,  which  is  in  Clay  County,  South 
Dakota. 

They  were  in  the  country  of  the  formidable 
Sioux  Indians,  and  the  travelers  set  the  prairie 
on  fire  as  a  notifica- 
tion of  their  coming. 
A  few  days  later  Ser- 
geant Pryor  and  oth- 
ers were  sent  to  the 
Sioux.  On  his  return 
Pryor  reported  that 
the  Sioux  received 
them  well  and  wished 
to  carry  them  on  a 
buffalo  robe,  an  honor 
which  they  declined.  They  were  also  feasted 
on  "  a  fat  dog,  already  cooked,  of  which  they 
partook  heartily."  This  feast  of  dog  meat 
was  to  be  a  frequent  experience. 

On  August  30  Lewis  and  ('lark  received  the 
Sioux  chiefs  and  warriors  in  state,  and  gave 


TOTKM    OK    THE    SlOl'X 


122  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

them  good  advice  regarding  their  relations 
with  the  United  States.  In  addition  to  the 
usual  presents  the  head  chief  received  a  richly 
laced  artillery  coat,  and  a  cocked  hat  with  a 
red  feather.  Then  they  all  smoked  the  pipe 
of  peace,  and  the  young  men  shot  at  marks. 
At  night  the  Indians  held  a  dance,  which  was 
a  new  and  striking  spectacle  for  the  white 
men. 

The  next  day  the  Sioux  chiefs  made  speeches 
in  reply,  which  were  peaceful,  but  their  main 


CALUMET,  OK  PIPE  OF 
PEACE 


point  was  that  they  wanted  powder  and  ball, 
and  presents  for  their  squaws.  More  presents 
were  given,  and  they  promised  to  make  peace 
with  the  Ottoes  and  Missouris. 

In  describing  these  Yank  ton  Sioux  the  jour- 
nal speaks  of  an  association  of  young  men 
among  them  who  are  bound  never  to  retreat 
before  any  danger  or  give  way  to  their  enemies. 


IN   SOUTH  DAKOTA  123 

"In  war  they  go  forward  without  sheltering 
themselves  behind  trees.  This  determination 
not  to  be  turned  aside  became  heroic,  or  ridic- 
ulous, a  short  time  since  when  the  Yanktons 
were  crossing  the  Missouri  on  the  ice.  A  hole 
lay  immediately  in  their  course  which  might 
easily  have  been  avoided  by  going  around. 

v  */  CJ  C_J 

This  the  leader  of  the  band  disdained  to  do, 
but  went  straight  forward  and  was  lost.  The 
others  would  have  followed  his  example  but 
were  forcibly  prevented." 

Above  Yankton  the  explorers  found  great 
sand  ridges  so  regular  in  their  formation  that 
they  are  described  and  mapped  out  in  the  jour- 
nals as  fortifications  made  by  the  hand  of  man. 
These  were  really  only  sand  drifts,  formed  by 
the  action  of  the  river. 

Another  experience  was  the  first  glimpse  of 
an  antelope,  which  was  called  a  goat.  The 
Americans  had  never  seen  a  prairie  dog,  and 
when  they  discovered  a  prairie-dog  village  they 
'*  poured  five  barrels  of  water  into  one  of  the 
holes  without  filling  it,  but  we  dislodged  and 
caught  the  owner." 


124  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

A  noteworthy  relic  of  a  dead  animal  was 
found  in  the  form  of  a  "  backbone  of  a  fish 
forty-five  feet  long,  in  a  perfect  state  of  petri- 
faction." This  wTas  not  a  fish,  but  the  remains 
of  one  of  the  extinct  giant  reptiles  of  the  Cre- 
taceous period. 

The  travelers  saw  buffalo,  elk,  "goats,"  — 
or  rather  antelopes,  —  black-tailed  deer,  prairie 
wolves,  coyotes,  porcupines,  rabbits,  and  bark- 
ing squirrels,  as  they  advanced.  Captain  Lewis 
tried  to  approach  and  shoot  some  antelopes, 

but  in   spite    of 
:.:.-•:.:.; : .T— ^  his    care   they 

jaa* •*"  'J 

*  STONE  HATCHET  "fled    with    a 

speed  equal  to 
that  of  the  most  distinguished  race  horse." 

Although  still  within  the  present  South 
Dakota  the  explorers  by  late  September  had 
reached  the  country  of  the  Teton  Sioux.  While 
they  were  in  Presho  County  a  horse  was 
stolen  by  the  Sioux,  and  this  annoyance  was 
followed  by  a  council  meeting,  which  was  very 
different  from  those  held  before.  After  the 
usual  talk  and  present  giving,  the  ungrateful 


IN  SOUTH  DAKOTA  125 

Sioux  chief  exclaimed  that  he  had  not  received 
presents  enough,  and  would  stop  the  explorers. 
He  "  was  proceeding  to  offer  personal  violence 
to  Captain  Clark,  who  immediately  drew  his 
sword  and  made  a  signal  to  the  boat  to  pre- 
pare for  action.  The  Indians  who  surrounded 
him  drew  their  arrows  from  their  quivers, 
and  were  bending  their  bows  when  the  swivel 
[gun]  was  instantly  pointed  to\vards  them  and 
twelve  of  our  most  determined  men  jumped 
into  the  pirogue  [small  boat]  and  joined  Cap- 
tain Clark.  This  movement  made  an  impres- 
sion on  them,  for  the  grand  chief  ordered  the 
young  men  away." 

The  courage  and  tact  of  the  Americans 
resulted  in  a  reconciliation.  The  next  day 
Lewis  and  Clark  were  carried  by  the  Sioux 
in  a  buffalo  robe  to  the  council  house,  where 
they  smoked  the  pipe  of  peace ;  and  a  repast 
was  served  which  consisted  of  dog  and  '•pem- 
itigon  [pemmican], —  a  dish  made  of  buffalo 
meat  dried  or  jerked  and  then  pounded  and 
mixed  raw  with  grease, — and  a  kind  of  ground 
potato  dressed  like  the  preparation  of  Indian 


126  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

corn  called  hominy,  to  which  it  is  little  inferior. 
Of  all  these  luxuries  which  were  placed  before 
us  in  platters,  with  horn  spoons,  we  took  the 
pemitigon  and  the  potato,  which  we  found 
good;  but  we  could  as  yet  partake  but  spar- 
in  o-l  v  of  the  dog." 

o   */ 

Here  they  saw  a  scalp  dance,  and  were  fairly 
deafened  by  the  noise  of  the  drums.  They 
noted  every  detail  of  Sioux  life  about  them; 
saw  the  buffalo-skin  lodges,  the  punishment 
of  wrongdoers  by  officers  appointed  by  the 
chief,  noted  the  Indians  themselves,  with  their 
heads  shaven  except  for  the  scalp  lock,  their 
faces  painted  with  grease  and  coal,  and  their 
robes  of  buffalo  skin  adorned  Avith  porcupine 
quills. 

In  spite  of  the  Sioux  professions  of  friend- 
ship they  became  troublesome  again.  They 
held  the  boat  until  the  soldiers  made  ready 
to  fire ;  then  followed  with  others  along  the 
bank,  alternately  threatening  and  begging,  un- 
til finally  this  rascally  tribe  was  left  behind 
and  the  expedition  passed  into  the  country  of 
the  Arikaras. 


N.VTl  KK'S     ki  FoRTIFH  ATIONS  " 

(From  the  plan  drawn  by  Lewis  and  Clark) 


IN  SOUTH  DAKOTA  127 

Here  there  were  not  only  "goats"  and 
"prairie  cocks"  but  "white  bear."  This  was 
the  famous  grizzly  bear.  The  explorers  also 

O  */  J. 

saw  "  a  species  of  animal  which  resembled  a 
small  elk,  with  large,  circular  horns."  This 
was  the  Rocky  Mountain  sheep,  or  bighorn. 
French  fur  traders  were  found  as  far  in  the 
wilderness  as  this,  and  they  aided  the  travelers 
in  calling  a  council,  which  differed  from  the 
others  in  one  respect,  —  the  Arikaras  very 
sensibly  refused  whisky,  saying  that  it  would 
make  them  fools. 

It  was  now  October,  and  the  weather  was 
growing  cold.  The  friendly  Arikaras  were  left 
behind  them,  and  on  October  21  they  reached 
a  creek  then  called  "  Chisshetaw,"  and  now 
Heart  River,  which  joins  the  Missouri  oppo- 
site the  city  of  Bismarck,  North  Dakota,  where 
the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  now  crosses 
the  Missouri.  The  future  site  of  Bismarck 
was  then  occupied  by  villages  of  the  Mandan 
Indians.  Since  the  cold  weather  would  soon 
stop  their  progress  it  had  been  decided  that 
they  would  winter  among  the  Mandans. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
AT  THE  MAXDAX  VILLAGES 

The  winter  camp.  Hunting  the  buffalo.  The  jcmrney  onward. 
Finding  the  Yellowstone  River.  Adventures  with  grizzly 
bears.  Hunting  in  Montana. 

On  the  north  bank  of  the  Missouri,  in  the 
present  McLean  County,  North  Dakota,  about 
eight  miles  below  the  mouth  of  Big  Knife 


A  MANDAN  HIT 


River,  where  the  town  of  Stanton  is  now  sit- 
uated, the  explorers  built  two  rows  of  log  huts, 
protected  by  a  stockade,  for  their  winter  camp. 
The  roofs  were  rudely  thatched  with  grass  and 


128 


AT   THE   HAND  AN   VILLAGES         129 

clay,  and  in  spite  of  the  bitter  weather  they 
'•  passed  the  winter  comfortably." 

Here  they  secured  an  Indian  interpreter 
named  Chaboneau.  His  wife,  Sacajawea  (Bird 
Woman),  had  been  captured  from  the  Snake 
Indians  and  sold  to  her  husband.  The  jour- 
nal speaks  of  her  as  "  a  good  creature,  of  a 
mild  and  gentle  disposition,  greatly  attached 
to  the  whites."  She  and  her  husband  accom- 
panied the  travelers  throughout  the  remainder 
of  their  journey,  and  her  patience,  courage, 
and  helpfulness  were  unfailing. 

The  Sioux  and  other  Indians  were  con- 
stantly engaged  in  warfare,  and  the  Mandans 
suffered  so  much  that  Captain  Clark  once 
mustered  twenty-four  men  and  offered  to  lead 
the  Mandans  against  the  Sioux.  The  deep 
snow  prevented,  but  the  offer  was  gratefully 
received  and  remembered.  The  friendliest 
relations  prevailed  between  these  Indians  and 
the  explorers. 

In  December,  Clark  and  others  joined  the 
Mandans  in  a  great  buffalo  hunt.  "  The  hunt- 
ers, mounted  on  horseback  and  armed  with 


130  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

bows  and  arrows,  encircle  the  herd  and  grad- 
ually drive  them  into  a  plain.  .  .  .  They  then 
ride  in  and  singling  out  a  buffalo,  a  female 
being  preferred,  .go  as  close  as  possible  and 
wound  her  with  arrows  till  they  think  they 
have  given  the  mortal  stroke,  when  they 
pursue  another.  If,  which  rarely  happens, 
the  wounded  buffalo  attacks  the  hunter,  he 
evades  his  blow  by  the  agility  of  his  horse, 
which  is  trained  for  the  combat  with  great 
dexterity." 

In  spite  of  weather  so  cold  that  the  mercury 
often  went  thirty-two  degrees  below  zero, 
the  Indians  kept  up  outdoor  sports.  Even  the 
white  men  enjoyed  a  merry  Christmas.  Later, 
wrhen  their  meat  supply  grew  low,  a  hunting 
expedition  was  sent  out,  which  killed  forty 
deer,  sixteen  elk,  and  three  buffalo.  Although 
the  game  was  lean  and  the  wolves  stole  much 
of  it,  they  gathered,  in  all,  some  three  thou- 
sand pounds  of  meat. 

Visits  from  white  fur  traders  and  the  in- 
roads of  the  Sioux  were  among  the  incidents 
of  a  winter  which  must,  after  all,  have  passed 


AT  THE  MANDAN  VILLAGES 


131 


slowly.  In  late  February,  however,  it  was  pos- 
sible to  cut  the  boats  free  from  the  ice  aud  to 
begin  preparing  them  for  the  onward  journey. 
On  April  7,  180-5,  the  soldiers  who  had 
been  sent  as  escort,  with  the  boatmen  and  one 


INTERIOR  OF  DESERTED  MANDAN  Ht  T 

interpreter,  started  back.  They  carried  reports 
for  President  Jefferson,  with  stuffed  animals, 
and  skeletons,  horns,  skins,  and  articles  of 
Indian  dress.  All  these  reached  the  President 
safely  in  course  of  time,  and  the  specimens 
were  exhibited  at  his  home  in  Monticello. 


132  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

On  the  same  day,  April  7,  the  expedition, 
now  consisting  of  thirty-two  persons,  embarked 
in  two  large  boats,  or  pirogues,  and  six 
canoes,  and  started  on  their  way  into  a  region 
practically  unknown  to  white  men.  The  mes- 
sages which  the  explorers  sent  back  at  this 
point  were  the  last  word  received  from  them 
until  they  returned  in  September,  1806.  But 
Captain  Lewis  wrote,  "Entertaining  as  I  do 
the  most  confident  hope  of  succeeding  in  a 
voyage  which  had  formed  a  darling  project  of 
mine  for  the  last  ten  years,  I  could  but  esteem 
this  moment  of  our  departure  as  among  the 
most  happy  of  my  life." 

As  they  advanced  they  saw  quantities  of 
"  brant "  (snow  geese),  and  they  found  an  ani- 
mal strange  to  them,  the  gopher.  The  squaw 
Sacajawea  dug  into  some  of  the  gopher  holes 
and  obtained  wild  artichokes  collected  by  the 
gophers.  The  statement  of  Lewis  and  Clark 
that  the  wild  geese  which  they  saw  built  their 
nests  in  the  tops  of  tall  cottonwood  trees  was 
doubted  at  the  time,  but  was  nevertheless  true. 
The  travelers  were  now  in  the  countrv  of  the 


AT   THE   MANDAN  VILLAGES         133 

sagebrush  and  alkali  dust, —  both  unknown  to 
them,  and  the  latter  very  painful  to  their 
eyes. 

They  had  heard  of  a  large  river  as  rising 
in  the  mountains  and  emptying  into  the  Mis- 
souri, and  on  April  25  Captain  Lewis  and 
four  men  left  the  party  and  found  the  river, 
which  was  already  known  to  French  trappers, 
who  called  it  La  Roche  Jaune.  Captain  Lewis 
named  it  the  Yellowstone.  It  has  kept  the 
name,  which  is  familiar  also  as  the  name  of 
the  National  Park,  in  which  the  river  rises. 
The  wonders  of  the  Yellowstone  Park  were 
discovered  later  by  John  Colter,  then  with 
the  expedition. 

They  saw  numbers  of  wild  animals ;  and 
one  day  Captain  Lewis,  who  was  on  shore 
with  one  hunter,  encountered  two  of  the  for- 
midable grizzly  bears  of  which  the  Indians  had 
given  dreadful  accounts.  Both  men  "  fired,  and 
each  wounded  a  bear ;  one  of  them  made  his 
escape  ;  the  other  turned  upon  Captain  Lewis 
and  pursued  him  seventy  or  eighty  yards,  but 
being  badly  wounded  could  not  run  so  fast  as 


134  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

to  prevent  him  from  reloading  his  piece,  which 
he  again  aimed  at  the  bear,  and  a  third  shot 
from  the  hunter  brought  him  to  the  ground." 

A  little  later  it  was  Captain  Clark's  turn. 
The  huge  bear  which  he  met  is  called  "  brown," 
but  the  grizzly  is  called  both  "  white "  and 
"  brown  "  in  the  journal.  As  the  hunters  fired, 
"  the  bear  fled  with  a  most  tremendous  roar, 
and  such  was  his  extraordinary  tenacity  of  life 
that,  although  he  had  five  balls  passed  through 
his  lungs,  and  five  other  wounds,  he  swam 
more  than  half  across  the  river  to  a  sand  bar 
and  survived  twenty  minutes.  He  weighed 
between  five  and  six  hundred  pounds  at  least, 
and  measured  eight  feet  seven  inches  and  a 
half  from  the  nose  to  the  extremity  of  the 
hind  feet." 

At  another  time  one  of  the  men  shot  a 
grizzly  through  the  lungs  ;  but  in  spite  of  this 
wound  the  bear  li  pursued  him  furiously  for 
over  half  a  mile,  then  returned  more  than 
twice  that  distance  and  with  his  talons  pre- 
pared himself  a  bed  in  the  earth,"  where  he 
was  found  and  killed. 


AT  THE  HAND  AN  VILLAGES         135 

Another  wounded  grizzly  pursued  two  hun- 
ters so  closely  that  "  they  threw  aside  their 
guns  and  pouches,  and  jumped  down  a  per- 
pendicular bank  of  twenty  feet  into  the  river  ; 
the  bear  sprang  after  them  and  was  within 
a  few  feet  of  the  hindmost  when  one  of  the 
hunters  on  shore  shot  him  in  the  head  and 
finally  killed  him.  They  found  that  eight 
balls  had  passed  through  him  in  different 
directions." 

When  these  exciting  adventures  happened 
they  were  journeying  through  Montana.  They 
passed  Porcupine  River,  named  from  the  prev- 
alence of  those  animals.  This  is  now  Poplar 
River,  and  there  is  an  Indian  agency  at  its 
mouth.  They  discovered  Milk  River,  which 
keeps  the  name  that  they  gave  it  on  account 
of  the  whiteness  of  its  water.  They  found  a 
river  bed  without  water,  which  they  called 
"  Big  Dry,"  a  name  which  is  also  preserved. 

Again  and  again  they  speak  of  the  quan- 
tities of  buffalo  and  of  elk.  Now  the  few 
buffalo  in  the  United  States  are  guarded 
in  the  Yellowstone  National  Park  and  in 


136  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

zoological  gardens  and  private  preserves. 
Lewis  and  Clark  found  over  a  hundred  skele- 
tons of  buffalo  under  a  precipice  over  which 
they  had  been  driven  by  the  Indians. 

There  are  still  many  elk  in  parts  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  but  they  are  in  danger  of 
being  destroyed  like  the  buffalo.  They  are 
exposed  not  only  to  the  ravages  of  hunters 
but  also  to  the  danger  of  starvation.  In 
the  winter  of  1902-1903,  when  deep  snow 
covered  the  grass,  elk  in  Wyoming  and  else- 
where fairly  stormed  the  haystacks  of  ranchers 
in  their  eagerness  for  food,  and  many  died  of 
starvation.  The  preservation  of  elk  and  other 
"  big  game  "  left  in  the  West  becomes  yearly 
of  greater  importance. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

ACROSS   MONTANA 

Discovery  of  the  Musselshell.  The  first  glimpse  of  the  Rock- 
ies. A  buffalo  charges  the  camp.  A  narrow  escape. 
At  the  Great  Falls  of  the  Missouri.  A  difficult  portage. 
Reaching  the  Three  Forks  of  the  Missouri.  In  an  un- 
known country. 

This  was  a  journey  of  incidents  and  acci- 
dents. At  one  time  the  explorers  were  startled 
by  the  upsetting  of  the  canoe  containing  their 
papers,  instruments,  and  medicines  ;  but  these 
were  fortunately  saved.  Again,  they  had  a 
narrow  escape  from  being  crushed  by  a  fall- 
ing tree.  But  they  kept  steadily  on  their 
way,  paddling,  sailing  when  the  wind  per- 
mitted, and  sometimes  towing  the  boats  with 
a  line  from  shore. 

On  May  20  they  reached  the  mouth  of  a 
large  river,  the  "  Muscleshell "  (Musselshell), 
twenty-two  hundred  and  seventy  miles  above 


138  LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 

the  Missouri's  mouth.  Thus  another  important 
river  was  discovered,  although  it  was  impos- 
sible to  explore  it.  The  information  given  by 
Indians,  that  it  rose  in  the  mountains  near  the 
source  of  the  Yellowstone,  was  erroneous. 

On  May  26,  1805,  when  the  party  had 
reached  the  present  Cow  Creek,  Montana, 
Captain  Lewis,  after  ascending  the  highest 
summit  of  some  hills,  "  first  caught  a  distant 
view  of  the  Rock  mountains,  the  object  of  all 
our  hopes  and  the  reward  of  all  our  ambition." 
It  was  a  thrilling  moment  for  the  explorers ; 
but  they  were  not  the  first,  for  the  Yerendryes 
had  seen  the  Rocky  Mountains  many  years 
before. 

A  few  days  later  a  frightened  buffalo  broke 
into  the  camp  at  night.  He  galloped  close  to 
the  heads  of  the  men  as  they  lay  asleep  by  the 
camp  fires,  and  nearly  broke  into  the  officers' 
lodge.  He  was  turned  by  the  barking  of  a 
dog  and,  wheeling,  vanished  in  the  darkness 
before  the  men  realized  what  had  happened. 

Early  in  June,  when  the  explorers  were 
near  the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Ophir, 


ACKOSS   MONTANA  139 

Montana,  they  came  to  a  large  stream  which 
they  called  Maria's  River.  It  was  so  large 
that  they  were  in  doubt  as  to  whether  this 
river  from  the  southwest  or  the  main  stream 
from  the  north  was  the  real  Missouri.  "  On 
our  right  decision,"  says  the  journal,  "much 
of  the  fate  of  the  expedition  depends  :  since 
if,  after  ascending  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  or 
beyond  them,  we  should  find  that  the  river 
we  were  following  did  not  come  near  the 
Columbia  and  be  obliged  to  return,  we  should 
not  only  lose  the  traveling  season,  but  prob- 
ably dishearten  the  men." 

To  determine  this  point  Captain  Lewis 
started  to  explore  the  north  fork,  and  Cap- 
tain Clark  the  south.  In  three  days  Lewis 
was  persuaded  that  his  fork  extended  too  far 
north  for  an  approach  to  the  Columbia,  and 
he  turned  back. 

Here  there  was  a  narrow  escape  from  a 
serious  accident.  While  passing  along  a  bluff 
his  foot  slipped,  and  he  barely  saved  himself 
with  his  spontoon  (pike)  from  falling  ninety 
feet,  over  a  precipice  into  the  river.  Suddenly 


140  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Lie  heard  one  of  his  men  cry,  "  Captain,  what 
shall  I  do?"  and  turning  saw  the  man  lying 
on  the  edge  of  the  precipice,  his  right  arm  and 
leg  over  the  brink.  Lewis  was  self-possessed. 
He  told  the  man  to  take  out  his  knife  with  his 
right  hand  and  dig  a  hole  in  which  he  could 
place  his  right  foot.  Thus  by  degrees  the  poor 
fellow  worked  his  way  to  safety. 

Lewis  and  Clark  of  course  were  right  in 
deciding  that  the  northerly  stream  —  Marias 
River  —  wras  a  tributary,  and  that  the  south- 
western stream  was  the  Missouri.  But  many 
of  the  party  thought  differently,  including 
Crusatte,  an  experienced  voi/ageur.  So  they 
decided  to  explore  farther.  Digging  holes  in 
the  ground,  they  concealed  many  of  their  goods 
in  caches  (the  French  name  for  these  places 
for  hiding  stores  from  Indians  and  wild  ani- 
mals). Lewis  ascended  the  south  branch,  the 
real  Missouri,  and  on  June  13  all  doubts  were 
set  at  rest  by  his  discovery  of  the  Great  Falls 
of  the  Missouri,  which  the  Indians  had  de- 
scribed. Of  this  wonderful  cataract  he  gives 
a  vivid  picture.  But  his  enjoyment  of  the 


ACROSS  MONTANA  141 

beautiful  sight  and  his  further  investigations 
were  suddenly  interrupted.  A  large  grizzly 
bear  charged  upon  him  while  his  gun  was 
unloaded,  and  chased  him  into  the  river. 
There  the  bear  fortunately  left  him  standing 
in  water  waist  deep,  with  pike  presented. 
Whatever  Captain  Lewis's  dreams  may  have 
been  that  night  his  waking  must  have  been 
equally  disturbing,  for  when  he  opened  his 
eyes  he  saw  a  large  rattlesnake  coiled  about 
the  trunk  of  the  tree  under  which  he  had 
been  sleeping. 

It  was  necessary  to  make  a  portage  to  trans- 
port their  boats  and  baggage  around  the  suc- 
cession of  cataracts  and  rapids.  The  south  side 
of  the  river  was  selected  for  a  portage  path 
eighteen  miles  in  length.  The  clearing  of 
this  long  path  was  one  of  the  many  examples 
of  the  hard  work  done  by  the  explorers.  In 
addition,  Captain  Clark  made  careful  surveys 
and  maps  of  the  falls,  cascades,  and  rapids. 
A  few  years  ago,  when  a  manufacturing  com- 
pany planned  a  dam  at  one  of  the  falls, 
their  engineers  found  Captain  Clark's  surveys 


142  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

entirely  accurate.  The  total  fall  of  the  river 
is  412.5  feet,  and  the  Great  Falls  alone  plunges 
down  75.5  feet. 

It  was  not  until  June  27  that  the  portage 
path  was  finished,  after  much  hard  work,  and 
much  annoyance  from  the  prickly  pear,  which 
pierced  their  moccasins.  They  had  other  ad- 
ventures with  bears,  which,  with  elk,  were 
plentiful  then.  At  this  haunt  of  wild  animals 
there  is  to-day  Great  Falls,  —  a  town  of  over 
ten  thousand  people. 

After  hiding  or  caching  such  articles  as  could 
be  left  behind,  the  weary  task  of  carrying  their 
supplies  over  the  long  portage  was  begun. 
Suddenly  there  was  a  cloud-burst  and  a  flow 
of  water,  from  which  Sacajawea,  the  faithful 
Snake  Indian  woman  who  accompanied  her 
husband  the  guide  from  the  Mandan  villages, 
was  barely  saved  by  Clark,  who  was  himself  in 
great  danger.  But  the  work  was  done,  in  spite 
of  a  hailstorm  and  the  annoyances  of  bears, 
and  swarms  of  peculiarly  active  mosquitoes. 

At  the  head  of  the  falls  a  disappointment 
awaited  them.  An  iron  frame  for  a  boat  had 


ACKOSS   MONTANA  143 

been  brought  all  the  way  from  Harpers  Ferry, 
Virginia.  Over  this  frame  they  fastened  the 
dressed  skins  of  buffaloes  and  elks,  covering 
the  seams  with  beeswax  mixed  with  powdered 
'charcoal.  But  on  launching  the  boat  they 
found  that  this  did  not  protect  the  seams,  and 
the  boat  leaked  so  badly  that  they  were  forced 
to  abandon  it.  It  was  therefore  necessary  to 
make  canoes.  Trees  were  scarce,  and  Clark 
traveled  many  miles  before  he  found  two 
cottonwoods  which  seemed  suitable.  But  on 
cutting  them  down  they  were  found  to  be 
partly  hollow  and  damaged  in  falling.  With 
the  perseverance  and  pluck  which  showed  in 
everything  that  these  men  did,  they  wrought 
out  the  best  canoes  they  could,  although  their 
ax  handles,  which  were  made  on  the  spot,  were 
constantly  breaking  as  they  worked. 

On  July  1-5  they  again  set  out  upon  their 
journey  with  eigl.it  heavily  laden  canoes.  They 
encountered  projecting  cliffs,  which  sometimes 
made  them  pass  and  repass  from  one  side  of 
the  river  to  the  other.  They  noted  fields  of 
sunflowers,  the  seeds  of  which  the  Indians  used 


144  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

to  make  bread.  They  found  purple,  yellow, 
and  black  currants,  and  many  otlier  berries, 
and  on  the  cliffs  they  saw  bighorns  or  Rocky 
Mountain  sheep.  Advancing  through  a  frown- 
ing canon,  which  they  called  the  "  Gates  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains,"  they  continued  south- 
ward with  the  Big  Belt  Mountains  on  the  east 
and  the  main  range  of  the  Rockies  on  the  west. 

They  were  anxious  to  find  some  Shoshone 
or  Snake  Indians  in  order  to  obtain  guides 
and  horses ;  but  the  first  Indians  that  they 
came  near  were  frightened  away  by  the  guns 
of  the  hunters,  and  set  the  grass  on  fire  as  a 
sign  of  danger  for  their  companions. 

On  July  2-5  Captain  Clark,  who  was  ahead, 
reached  the  Three  Forks  of  the  Missouri.  The 
one  flowing  northeast,  which  is  the  main  Mis- 
souri, was  named  the  Jefferson.  The  name  of 
Madison,  the  Secretary  of  State,  was  given  to 
the  middle  branch,  and  the  third  was  named 
for  Albert  Gallatin,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
These  names  have  been  preserved.  At  this 
point  the  explorers  were  to  the  eastward  of 
the  present  cities  of  Helena  and  Butte.  Not 


ACROSS   MONTANA  145 

far  away,  over  the  divide  between  southern 
Montana  and  Idaho,  were  the  sources  of  some 
streams  flowing  to  the  Pacific.  But  this  they 
had  yet  to  learn.  They  were  in  a  country 
untrodden  by  white  men,  a  country  of  which 
they  could  obtain  only  vague  ideas  from  the 
Indians,  and  yet  much  depended  upon  getting 
into  communication  with  them.  The  explorers 
wished  to  find  a  pass  through  the  mountains, 
and  although  Sacajawea  was  now  in  her  own 
land,  her  knowledge  of  what  lay  beyond  was 
very  slight,  and  the  real  guaranty  of  success 
lay  in  the  stout  hearts,  cheerful  courage,  and 
dauntless  perseverance  of  the  explorers  them- 
selves. 


CHAPTER   XV 
THROUGH  THE  ROCKIES  TO  THE  PACIFIC 

Ascending  the  Jefferson.  Reaching  the  Great  Divide.  Some 
friendly  Indians.  Sacajawea  meets  old  acquaintances. 
Hardships  and  disappointments.  Struggling  across  the 
mountains.  Among  the  Xez  Percys.  On  toward  the  sea. 
Passing  the  cataracts  of  the  Columbia.  The  first  glimpse 
of  the  sea. 

It  was  on  the  30th  of  July  that  they  began 
the  laborious  ascent  of  the  Jefferson,  or  true 
Missouri.  Captain  Lewis  went  ahead  to  find 
some  Indians  and  gain  information  as  to  the 
way  across  the  mountains.  The  others  fol- 
lowed, struggling  with  rapids  and  shoals,  often 
wading  through  the  water  over  slippery  stones 
and  dragging  the  boats,  and  often  puzzled  as 
to  the  right  course  by  the  bewildering  forks 
of  the  stream.  On  August  11  Lewis  saw  a 
Shoshone  on  horseback,  whom  he  tried  vainly 
to  attract  by  holding  up  a  looking-glass  and 

146 


THROUGH   THE  ROCKIES  147 

beads  and  making  friendly  signs.  Lewis  was 
now  traveling  near  the  base  of  the  Bitter 
Root  Mountains,  hoping  to  find  an  Indian 
trail  leading  to  a  pass.  As  he  kept  on,  the 
Jefferson  grew  smaller  and  smaller,  until  it 
dwindled  to  a  brook,  and  one  of  the  men, 
with  a  foot  on  each  side,  "  thanked  God  that 
he  had  lived  to  bestride  the  Missouri." 

They  had  then  found  and  were  following 
an  Indian  trail,  and  at  last  they  came  to  a 
gap  in  the  mountains  where  they  drank  from 
the  actual  source  of  the  great  Missouri  River, 
which  they  had  ascended  from  its  mouth. 

The  Indian  trail  brought  them  to  the  top 
of  a  ridge  commanding  snow-topped  mountains 
to  the  westward.  "  The  ridge  on  which  they 
stood  formed  the  dividing  line  between  the 
waters  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  oceans. 
The  descent  was  much  steeper  than  on  the 
eastern  side,  and  at  the  distance  of  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile  they  reached  a  bold  creek 
of  cold,  clear  water  running  west,  and  stopped 
to  taste  for  the  first  time  the  waters  of  the 
Columbia." 


148 


LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 


These  were  the  first  white  men  to  cross  the 
"  Continental  Divide  "  in  our  Northwest,  In 
1792-171)3  Alexander  Mackenzie  had  crossed 
British  America  to  the  Pacific. 

Lewis  and  his  men  kept  on  to  the  westward 
and  finally  made  friends  with  some  Indians. 


MAP  OF  LKWIS  AND  CLARK  PASS 

They  smoked  the  pipe  of  peace  and  partook 
of  a  salmon.  —  another  proof  that  they  were 
on  the  Pacific  side  of  the  mountains.  The 
chief  promised  horses  but  afterward  became 
suspicious  of  some  treachery,  and,  between 
the  chief's  changes  of  mind  and  scanty  food, 
Lewis's  stay  was  made  most  uncomfortable. 
But  at  last  he  and  the  Indians,  with  horses. 


THROUGH   THE   ROCKIES  149 

started  back  to  meet  Captain  Clark,  who  all 
this  time  had  been  laboriously  ascending  the 
Jefferson  with  the  boats. 

On  August  17,  after  retracing  his  course 
across  the  divide,  Captain  Lewis  and  his  party 
found  Captain  Clark.  As  they  approached 
each  other  the  faithful  Sacajawea,  who  was 
with  Clark,  began  to  dance  with  joy,  pointing 
to  the  Indians  and  sucking  her  fingers  to  show 
that  they  were  of  her  tribe.  Presently  an 
Indian  woman  came  to  her,  and  they  embraced 
each  other  with  the  most  tender  affection. 
"  They  had  been  companions  in  childhood ; 
in  the  war  with  the  Minnetarees  they  had 
both  been  taken  prisoners  in  the  same  battle ; 
they  had  shared  and  softened  the  rigors  of 
their  captivity  till  one  of  them  had  escaped 
from  their  enemies  with  scarce  a  hope  of  ever 
seeing  her  friend  rescued  from  their  hands." 

It  was  arranged  that  Clark,  with  eleven 
men  and  with  tools,  should  cross  the  divide  to 
the  village  of  the  Shoshonees.  He  was  then  to 
lead  his  men  down  the  Columbia  and.  when  he 
found  navigable  water,  to  begin  to  build  canoes. 


150  LOUISIANA  PUECHASE 

Lewis  was  to  remain  and  bring  the  bags-acre 

O  OO      o 

to  the  Shoshone  village.  At  the  council  held 
here  the  Indians  promised  to  bring  more 
horses,  and  showed  great  astonishment  at  the 
arms  and  dress  of  the  men,  the  "strange 
looks"  of  the  negro,  and  the  air  gun. 

On  August  20  Clark  reached  the  Shoshone 
village,  which  since  Lewis's  visit  had  been 
moved  two  miles  up  the  little  river  on  which 
it  was  situated.  Here  he  heard  most  dis- 
couraging accounts  of  the  wild  country  before 
him  and  the  difficulty  of  reaching  navigable 
water  by  which  they  could  descend  to  the  sea. 
These  stories  proved  too  true.  Clark  passed 
the  junction  of  the  Salmon  and  Lemhi  rivers, 
where  Salmon  City,  Idaho,  is  now  situated, 
and  he  gave  the  name  of  Lewis  River  to  the 
stream  below  the  junction. 

The  traveling  over  rocky  mountain  paths 
was  most  trying,  and  instead  of  the  abundance 
of  game  which  they  had  seen  in  Montana  and 
Dakota  there  was  an  absence  of  deer  and  other 
animals.  They  were  obliged  to  depend  largely 
on  such  salmon  as  they  could  catch,  or  buy 


THROUGH  THE  ROCKIES  151 

from  the  Indians.  Since  the  Indians  them- 
selves were  scant  of  food,  and  the  white  men 
had  no  proper  fishing  tackle,  it  is  not  strange 
that  Clark's  followers  began  to  fear  starva- 
tion. They  explored  the  Salmon  River  for 
fifty-two  miles,  but  saw  that  progress  that  way 
was  impossible,  and,  unsuccessful  for  once, 
they  returned  to  join  Lewis. 

Meantime  Lewis  had  had  his  own  troubles. 
After  promising  horses  and  aid,  the  Indians 
threatened  to  leave  him  for  a  buffalo  hunt  on 
the  eastern  side  of  the  mountains,  and  it  was 
only  by  much  tact  and  patience  that  he  kept 
them  with  him. 

On  August  30  Clark  returned  from  his  un- 
successful search  for  a  water  way.  A  part 
of  the  baggage  was  hidden  and  the  rest  was 
packed  on  horses.  Then  the  explorers  went 
on  slowly  through  the  Bitter  Root  Mountains. 
The  Indian  guide  lost  his  way  completely. 
"  The  thickets  through  which  we  were  obliged 
to  cut  our  way  required  great  labor ;  the  road 
itself  was  over  the  steep  and  rocky  sides  of 
the  hills,  where  the  horses  could  not  move 


152  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

without  danger  of  slipping  down,  while  their 
feet  were  bruised  by  the  rocks  and  stumps." 
They  saw  no  game,  and  were  obliged  to  resort 
to  horseflesh  for  food.  The  nights  were  cold, 
and  as  they  reached  greater  heights  the  trail 
was  sometimes  covered  with  snow.  A  few 
cans  of  soup  and  twenty  pounds  of  bear's  oil 
were  all  the  food  that  they  had  left.  No 
wronder  that  the  men  grew  weak  and  ill. 

But  on  September  20,  half-starved  and  sick, 
after  nearly  three  weeks  of  hardships  in  the 
Bitter  Root  Mountains,  they  emerged  upon  a 
plain  where  they  found  Indians  and  food. 
At  last  the  barrier  of  the  mountains  had  been 
broken  through. 

These  Indians  were  the  Xez  Perces.  Among 
the  articles  of  food  which  they  offered  were 
various  roots,  including  the  quamash,  which 
was  ground  and  made  into  a  cake  called 
pasheco.  This  root  is  still  eaten  by  the  Xez 
Perces,  and  from  quamash  comes  the  name 
of  Camas  Prairie.  It  seemed  a  relief  to  have 
a  comparative  abundance  of  food.  But  this 
consisted  principally  of  fish  and  roots,  and 


THROUGH   THE   ROCKIES  153 

this  strange  diet,  of  which  they  naturally  ate 
heartily  after  their  privations,  caused  serious 
illness  throughout  the  party.  "  Captain  Lewis 
could  hardly  sit  on  his  horse,  while  others  were 
obliged  to  be  put  on  horseback,  and  some,  from 
extreme  weakness  and  pain,  were  forced  to  lie 
down  alongside  of  the  road  for  some  time." 

While  resting  at  the  Nez  Perce  village  near 
the  present  Pierce  City,  Idaho,  they  learned 
all  that  they  could  of  the  country  beyond. 
The  Indian  chief  Twisted-hair  drew  a  rude 
may  of  the  rivers,  showing  the  forks  of  the 
Kooskooskee,  now  the  Clearwater,  the  junction 
with  the  Snake  River,  and  the  entrance  of 
another  large  river,  which  was  the  Columbia. 

Late  in  September,  after  obtaining  provi- 
sions from  the  Indians,  they  moved  on  to  a 
camp  on  the  Kooskooskee  River.  In  spite  of 
continued  illness  they  built  five  canoes.  They 
concealed  some  of  their  goods,  left  their  horses 
with  the  Indians,  and,  undaunted  by  their  suf- 
ferings, started  down  the  river  in  their  canoes 
on  October  8.  One  canoe  was  sunk  by  strik- 
ing a  rock,  and  a  halt  was  called  to  dry  the 


154  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

luggage   and  make   repairs.     Fish  and  even 
dogs  were  bought  from  the  Indians  for  food. 

Always  alert  for  information,  the  explor- 
ers noted  all  the  peculiarities  of  their  hosts. 
There  were  the  baths,  or  sweat  houses,  which 
were  hollow  squares  in  the  river  banks,  where 
the  bather  steamed  himself  by  pouring  water 
on  heated  stones.  Some  of  the  Indians  cooked 
salmon  by  putting  hot  stones  into  a  bucket  of 
water  until  it  would  boil  the  fish.  Many  of 
them  were  frightened  by  the  coming  of  the 
white  men  with  their  guns.  At  one  place 
Captain  Clark,  unperceived  by  them,  shot  a 
white  crane,  and  seeing  it  fall  they  believed 
it  to  be  the  white  men  descending  from  the 
clouds.  When  Clark  used  his  burning  glass 
to  light  his  pipe  they  were  more  than  ever  sure 
that  their  visitors  were  not  mortal.  But  they 
were  finally  reassured  by  presents  and  the 
kindness  and  tact  which  the  travelers  showed 
in  all  their  dealings  with  the  savages.  There 
were  "  almost  inconceivable  multitudes  of 
salmon  "  in  the  rivers.  Many  at  that  season 
were  floating  down  stream,  and  the  Indians 


THKOUGH   THE  liUCKlES  155 

were  collecting,  splitting,  and  drying  them 
on  scaffolds. 

One  of  the  first  camps  was  at  the  junction 
of  the  Kooskooskee  and  Snake,  where  the  city 
of  Lewiston,  Idaho,  now  stands,  —  named  for 
Captain  Lewis.  Then,  entering  the  present 
state  of  Washington,  they  descended  the  Snake, 
where  the  wind  and  the  rapids  caused  various 
accidents.  On  October  16  they  reached  the 
mighty  Columbia,  which  had  been  called  by  the 
Indians  the  "  Oregon,"  or  "  River  of  the  West." 
This  was  to  be  their  pathway  to  the  sea. 

They  were  now  among  the  Sokulk  Indians, 
from  whom  they  purchased  more  dogs,  since 
the  salmon  were  poor  and  they  had  accus- 
tomed themselves  to  dog  flesh.  They  noted 
the  deerskin  robes  of  the  red  men,  and  their 
method  of  gigging  (spearing)  salmon  and  dry- 
ing them ;  the  prevalence  of  sore  eyes  among 
the  Indians,  ascribed  to  the  glare  from  the 
water ;  and  their  bad  teeth,  which  they  traced 
to  a  diet  of  gritty  roots. 

On  October  23,  two  days  after  their  first 
glimpse  of  Mt.  Hood,  they  reached  the  first 


156  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

falls  of  the  Columbia,  which  they  passed  suc- 
cessfully by  portages  and  by  letting  the  canoes 
down  the  rapids  with  lines.  At  the  next  fall 
they  managed,  after  partially  unloading  the 
canoes,  to  run  them  down  through  a  narrow 
passage,  past  a  high,  black  rock,  much  to  the 
astonishment  of  the  Indians. 

Here  they  were  surprised  to  find  that  the 
savages  (Echeloots,  related  to  the  Upper  Chi- 
nooks)  were  living  in  wooden  houses,  which 
consisted  in  large  part  of  an  underground 
room,  lined  with  wood  and  covered  above 
ground  with  a  roof  composed  of  ridgepole, 
rafters,  and  a  white  cedar  covering.  Here,  as 
before,  the  explorers  acted  the  part  of  peace- 
makers, and  urged  the  Indians  to  cease  their 
warfare  with  neighboring  tribes.  Lewis  and 
Clark  had  before  this  seen  flat-headed  women 
and  children  in  certain  tribes,  but  here  the 
men  also  had  been  subjected  to  this  cruel 
practice.  The  result  was  often  accomplished 
by  binding  a  board  tightly  on  an  infant's 
forehead,  and  thus  flattening  it  backward  and 
upward. 


THROUGH   THE  ROCKIES  157 

On  October  28  they  were  visited  by  an 
Indian  "  who  wore  his  hair  in  a  que  [cue]  and 
had  on  a  round  hat  and  a  sailor's  jacket  which 
he  said  he  had  obtained  from  the  people  below 
the  great  rapids,  who  bought  them  from  the 
whites."  This  was  a  cheering  indication  of 
their  approach  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia, 
where  the  fur  trade  attracted  American  and 
English  ships.  Later  they  found  an  English 
musket  and  cutlass  and  some  brass  teakettles 
in  an  Indian  hut,  and  one  of  the  chiefs  had 
cloths  and  a  sword  procured  from  some  Eng- 
lish vessel. 

Thus  they  went  on  through  the  present 
Skamania  County,  Washington,  hunting  now 
and  then  with  some  slight  success,  observing 
the  country,  buying  roots  and  dogs,  and  mak- 
ing notes  of  the  habits  of  the  natives  and  of 
their  burial  places,  until  they  came  to  the 
"great  shoot"  or  last  rapids  of  the  Columbia, 
which  they  passed  without  serious  accident. 

From  Indians  below  the  rapids  they  heard 

*j 

the   encouraging   news   that  three   ships  had 
lately  been  seen  at  the  mouth  of  the  river. 


158  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

As  they  journeyed  toward  the  sea,  the  entrance 
of  the  Multnomah,  now  the  Willamette  River, 
was  concealed  from  them  by  the  islands  at 
its  month.  A  few  miles  farther  up,  the 
prosperous  city  of  Portland,  Oregon,  now 
stands.  While  they  were  being  piloted  down 
the  river  by  the  Indian  who  had  come  to 
them  in  a  sailor's  jacket,  they  caught  sight 
of  Mt.  St.  Helens. 

Fog  and  rain,  thievish  Indians,  and  the 
noises  of  wild  fowl  at  night  were  among  their 
smaller  troubles,  but  all  were  forgotten  when, 
on  November  7,  the  fog  suddenly  cleared  away 
and  "  we  enjoyed  the  delightful  prospect  of 
the  ocean,  —  that  ocean,  the  object  of  all  our 
labors,  the  reward  of  all  our  anxieties.  This 
cheering  view  exhilarated  the  spirits  of  all  the 
party,  who  were  still  more  delighted  on  hearing 
the  distant  roar  of  the  breakers." 

Remembering  what  they  had  undergone, 
one  can  understand  their  joy  at  success  in 
their  perilous  task.  They  had  crossed  the 
continent. 


CHAPTER   XVI 
OX   THE  PACIFIC    SLOPE 

The  winter  camp.  Peculiarities  of  the  Clatsop  Indians.  A 
scarcity  of  supplies.  Turning  homeward.  Surmounting 
the  cascades.  Journeying  by  land.  Troublesome  Indians. 
Living  on  dog  flesh.  A  search  for  their  horses.  Indian 
cooking.  Suffering  of  the  explorers. 

The  sea  gave  them  an  inhospitable  welcome. 
As  they  neared  a  camping  place  which  they 
selected  on  Gray's  Bay,  in  Wahkiakum  County, 
Washington,  the  waves  were  so  high  that  some 
of  the  men  became  seasick.  Next  day  they 
were  beaten  back  to  camp  by  the  rough 
water,  which  their  canoes,  mere  dugouts,  could 
not  withstand.  They  were  flooded  by  inces- 
sant rain  and  harassed  by  heavy  winds,  thiev- 
ish Indians,  and  the  fleas  which  were  the 
Indians'  constant  companions. 

At  their  next  camp,  on  Baker's  Bay,  they 
suffered  even  more  from  the  merciless  rain. 

159 


160  LOUISIANA  PUECHASE 

They  found  game,  and  explored  to  some  extent 
the  mouth  of  the  Columbia.  They  hoped  to 
encounter  a  trading  ship  from  which  they  could 
replenish  their  stores,  but  none  appeared.  It 
was  necessary  to  find  a  place  for  a  winter  camp 
and  Lewis  finally  discovered  one,  on  the  south 
side  of  the  Columbia,  not  far  from  their  present 
camp.  Before  leaving  the  latter  this  inscrip- 
tion was  carved  on  the  trunk  of  a  lofty  pine: 

"\Vm.  Clark  December  3r>  1805 

By  Land  from  the  U.  States 

in  1804  &  ,5." 

Some  three  miles  up  the  Xetul  River,  which 
empties  into  a  bay  named  Meriwether's  (for 
Captain  Meriwether  Lewis),  they  made  their 
camp  on  a  bluff  in  a  grove  of  lofty  pines. 
There  they  built  seven  log  cabins,  roofed  with 
rude  shingles,  or  more  properly  slabs,  called 
"shakes,"  which  were  split  from  pine  logs. 
Their  meat  bouse  was  replenished  by  hunt- 
ing elk  and  deer.  In  the  course  of  the  winter 
they  killed  one  hundred  and  thirty-one  of  the 
former  and  twentv  of  the  latter. 


MOUTH  OF  TIII-;  COLUMIUA  RIVKK 
(From  the  plau  drawn  by  Lewis  and  Clark) 


ON  THE  PACIFIC   SLOPE  161 

They  saw  much  of  the  Clatsop  Indians,  who 
lived  in  houses  of  split  pine  boards  half  above 
and  half  below  the  ground.  The  explorers 
noted  that  these  Indians  were  cleanly  and  fre- 
quently washed  their  faces  and  hands,  some- 
thing which  they  had  rarely  seen  among  other 
tribes.  In  their  most  common  game  "one  of 
the  party  had  a  piece  of  bone  about  the  size 
of  a  large  bean,  and  having  agreed  with  any 
individual  as  to  the  value  of  the  stake,  he 
would  pass  the  bone  from  one  hand  to  the 
other  with  great  dexterity,  singing  at  the  same 
time  to  divert  the  attention  of  his  adversary; 
then  holding  it  in  his  closed  hands,  his  antag- 
onist was  challenged  to  guess  in  which  of 
them  the  bone  was."  This  seems  to  have  been 
a  variety  of  the  game,  '•  Button,  Button,  who 
has  the  Button?" 

These  Clatsops  are  described  as  wearing 
hats  "'  made  of  cedar-bark  and  bear-grass, 
interwoven  together  in  the  form  of  a  Euro- 
pean hat,  with  a  small  brim  of  about  two 
inches,  and  a  high  crown  widening  upward. 
They  are  light,  ornamented  with  various 


162  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

colors,  and  being  nearly  waterproof,  are  much 
more  durable  than  either  chip  or  straw  hats. 
.  .  .  But  the  most  curious  workmanship  is 
that  of  the  basket.  It  is  formed  of  cedar- 
bark  and  bear-grass,  so  closely  interwoven 
that  it  is  water-tight,  without  the  aid  of  either 
gum  or  resin." 

These  Indians  were  much  more  attractive 
than  the  dwarfish  and  ugly  Chinooks,  whom 
they  also  observed,  but  writh  great  caution  on 
account  of  their  thievish  habits. 

The  winter  was  not  eventful.  They  hunted, 
studied  the  Indians,  and  made  salt  by  evap- 
orating sea  water.  There  was  little  snow, 
but  the  rain  was  persistent. 

In  March  they  prepared  for  their  long  jour- 
ney homeward.  On  examining  their  stores 
they  found  a  sufficient  supply  of  powder.  This 
was  in  leaden  canisters,  which,  when  they  had 
been  emptied,  were  melted  to  make  bullets. 
Their  goods,  however,  were  nearly  exhausted. 
"All  the  small  merchandise  we  possess  might 
be  tied  up  in  a  couple  of  handkerchiefs.  The 
rest  of  our  stock  in  trade  consists  of  six  blue 


ON  THE  PACIFIC   SLOPE  103 

robes,  one  scarlet  robe,  five  robes  which  we 
made  of  our  United  States  flag,  a  few  old 
clothes  trimmed  with  ribbons,  and  one  artil- 
lerist's coat  and  hat,  wrhich  probably  Captain 
Clark  will  never  wear  again.  We  have  to 
depend  entirely  upon  this  meagre  outfit  for 
the  purchase  of  such  horses  and  provisions  as 
it  will  be  in  our  power  to  obtain  —  a  scant 
dependence  indeed,  for  such  a  journey  as  is 
before  us." 

Before  they  started  they  made  several 
copies  of  a  list  of  the  party,  a  map  of  their 
route,  and  a  memorandum  regarding  their 
travels.  These  they  left  with  the  Clatsops, 
who  were  to  give  them  to  any  white  man. 
One  list  was  given  the  next  summer  to  Captain 
Hill  of  the  brig  Lydia,  who  came  to  the  coast 
to  trade.  He  took  it  to  China  and  then  sent  it 
to  the  United  States,  where  it  arrived  safely. 

At  this  point  in  the  journal  there  is  a  long 
and  careful  account  of  all  the  plants,  animals, 
birds,  and  fish  which  they  had  seen,  showing 
how  thoroughly  they  had  studied  the  natural 
history  of  the  country  during  the  winter. 


164  LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 

On  March  23,  1806,  the  canoes  were  loaded 
and  they  began  the  journey  eastward.  The 
hunters  of  the  party  searched  the  shores  dili- 
gently for  game  with  some  success.  They 
obtained  "wappatoo"  (arrowhead  roots)  from 
the  various  Indians  whom  they  met,  some  of 
whom,  the  Skilloots,  were  old  acquaintances, 
and  later,  dogs  were  again  necessary  to  help 
out  their  fare.  On  the  return,  Captain  Clark 
discovered  the  Multnomah,  now  the  Willamette 
River,  which  as  we  have  seen  they  failed  to 
notice  on  the  descent.  They  describe  Mt.  Hood 
and  Mt.  Regnier  (Rainier),  St.  Helens,  and 
Mt.  Jefferson,  and  they  note  the  beautiful  cas- 
cades along  the  rocky  walls  of  the  Columbia, 
among  them  the  superb  Multnomah  Falls. 

On  April  9  they  reached  Beacon  Rock  on 
the  north  side  of  the  river,  which  marks  the 
head  of  tide  water  and  the  foot  of  the  cas- 
cades of  the  Columbia.  They  had  only  one 
towrope,  and  it  was  therefore  a  long  and 
tiresome  task  to  drag  the  canoes  one  by  one 
along  the  shore  to  the  portage.  Here  they 
were  obliged  to  unload  the  canoes  and  carry 


Copyright,  liXJl,  by  Detroit  Photographic 

Company 
MULTNOMAH    FALLS 


ON  THE  PACIFIC   SLOPE  165 

their  effects  around.  The  Indians,  Wahclel- 
lahs,  crowded  about  them  and  threatened  vio- 
lence. Some  of  them  threw  stones.  Two 
attempted  to  take  a  dog  from  Shields,  one  of 
the  men.  "  He  had  no  weapon  but  a  long 
knife,  with  which  he  immediately  attacked 
both,  hoping  to  put  them  to  death  before  they 
had  time  to  draw  their  arrows ;  but  as  soon  as 
they  saw  his  design  they  fled  into  the  woods." 

After  much  labor  the  company  passed  the 
cascades,  and  presently  surmounted  the  "  Long 
Narrows."  These  are  now  known  as  the 
Dalles  of  the  Columbia,  from  a  French  word 
meaning  flat  stones.  At  the  head  is  now 
Celilo  City,  and  at  the  foot  Dalles  City,  both 
in  Oregon. 

By  April  16  the  party  reached  the  plains 
stretching  away  to  the  foot  of  the  Rockies, 
and  they  found  that  the  air  was  drier  and 
more  pure,  and  that  they  had  emerged  from 
the  region  of  constant  rains. 

After  various  efforts  a  few  horses  were  pro- 
cured and  some  of  the  canoes  were  broken 
up,  and  from  the  24th  of  April  they  traveled 


166  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

wholly  by  land.  Their  stock  of  goods  was  so 
low  that  it  was  hard  to  trade  for  horses,  and 
on  the  28th  we  find  Captain  Clark  obliged  to 
give  his  sword  for  a  white  horse  in  addition 
to  some  powder  and  ball. 

The  Skilloot  Indians  and  others  proved 
thievish  and  disobliging.  One  of  them  was 
kicked  out  of  camp  for  stealing,  but  in  spite 
of  these  troubles  bloodshed  was  avoided  by  tact 
and  patience.  An  agreeable  contrast  was  af- 
forded by  the  "  Walla  wollahs  "  (Walla  Wallas), 
three  of  whom  travelled  a  whole  day  to  return 
a  steel  trap  which  the  explorers  had  left  be- 
hind. It  is  pleasant  also  to  know  that  Lewis 
and  Clark  were  enabled  by  their  knowledge 
of  medicine  and  surgery  to  help  these  Indians. 
They  set  a  broken  arm  and  put  it  into  splints, 
and  gave  medicines  to  the  sick.  They  enter- 
tained other  Indians  with  their  violins,  which 
had  been  carefully  preserved  throughout  their 
vicissitudes. 

They  were  now  crossing  the  plains  where 
fuel  and  game  were  scarce.  They  passed 
along  the  Walla  Walla  River  in  Washington 


ON  THE  PACIFIC   SLOPE  167 

on  their  way  toward  the  Kooskooskee  River 
and  their  friends  the  Chopunnish  Indians. 
Early  in  May  they  met  an  old  acquaintance, 
Weahkoonut,  who  had  guided  them  down  the 
Snake  in  the  previous  autumn.  The  explorers 
had  been  living  on  scanty  rations  and  were 
half  famished,  and  they  found  that  the  Indians 
themselves  were  little  better  off.  Dog  flesh  was 
their  chief  reliance  until  the  hunters  succeeded 
in  killing  some  deer. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  they  had  left 
their  horses  with  these  Indians  in  the  autumn 
and  had  hidden  their  saddles  and  some  of  their 
goods.  But  there  had  been  quarrels  among 
the  Indians,  the  hiding  place  had  been  ex- 
posed, some  of  the  saddles  were  gone,  and  it 
wras  only  after  much  trouble  that  the  horses 
\vere  recovered. 

On  May  10  there  was  a  heavy  snowstorm, 
and  as  the  mountains  were  covered  the  ex- 
plorers made  a  camp  on  the  river  to  await 
the  melting  of  the  snow.  They  were  now 
on  the  Kooskooskee,  in  the  Nez  Perce  County, 
Idaho,  to  the  eastward  of  the  city  of  Lewriston. 


168  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Here  they  held  a  grand  council  with  the  In- 
dians, explaining  the  sovereignty  and  benefi- 
cent intentions  of  the  United  States.  It  would 
be  hard  to  say  exactly  what  ideas  reached  the 
Indians.  The  explorers  spoke  in  English  to 
one  of  their  men.  He  translated  the  message 
into  French  for  Chaboneau.  He  interpreted 
it  to  his  wife  in  the  Minnetaree  language. 
She  put  it  into  Shoshone,  and  a  young  Sho- 
shone  prisoner  among  the  Indians  explained 
it  to  the  Chopunnish  in  their  own  dialect. 
Whatever  they  might  have  gathered  from  the 
talk,  the  Indians  had  no  difficulty  in  under- 
standing the  presents  which  were  made  them. 
The  hunters  encountered  grizzly  bears  again, 
and  some  meat  was  given  to  the  Indians,  which 
they  cooked  in  an  odd  way.  a  They  immedi- 
ately prepared  a  large  fire  of  dried  wood,  on 
which  was  thrown  a  number  of  smooth  stones 
from  the  river.  As  soon  as  the  fire  burned 
down  and  the  stones  were  heated,  they  were 
laid  next  to  each  other  in  a  level  position  and 
covered  with  a  quantity  of  pine  branches,  on 
which  were  placed  flitches  of  the  meat,  and 


ON  THE  PACIFIC   SLOPE  169 

then  boughs  and  flesh  alternately  for  several 
courses,  leaving  a  thick  layer  of  pine  on  the 
top.  On  this  heap  they  then  poured  a  small 
quantity  of  water  and  covered  the  whole  with 
earth  to  the  depth  of  four  inches.  After 
remaining  in  this  state  for  about  three  hours, 
the  meat  was  taken  off,  and  was  really  more 
tender  than  that  which  we  had  boiled  or 
roasted,  though  the  strong  flavor  of  the  pine 
rendered  it  disagreeable  to  our  palates." 

Their  stay  in  this  country  wras  made  uncom- 
fortable by  a  recurrence  of  the  rains.  They 
often  slept  in  pools  of  rain  water.  About  the 
middle  of  May  they  found  that  the  stores  of 
each  man  were  reduced  to  one  awl,  a  knitting 
needle,  half  an  ounce  of  vermillion,  two  needles, 
a  few  skeins  of  thread,  and  a  yard  of  ribbon. 
This  represented  their  means  of  trading  with 
the  Indians.  To  increase  their  store  they  cut 
from  their  ragged  uniforms  the  brass  buttons 
which  attracted  the  Indians,  and  bought  fish, 
bread,  and  roots.  They  also  exchanged  some 
of  their  eyewater  and  ointment,  and  tin  boxes 
in  which  they  had  kept  phosphorus. 


170  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

The  medical  practice  of  the  explorers  con- 
tinued. They  treated  the  Chopunnish  (Nez 
Perces)  for  sore  eyes  and  for  rheumatism. 
There  was  much  sickness  among  their  own 
party.  However  much  they  suffered  them- 
selves, they  gave  the  tenderest  care  to  one 
pathetic  little  figure,  —  a  strange  comrade  for 
such  a  journey,  —  the  baby  of  Sacajawea. 

It  was  not  a  cheerful  time  that  they  passed 
at  this  camp..  They  gathered  all  the  food 
possible,  nursed  their  sick,  cared  for  their 
horses,  and  waited  as  patiently  as  possible  for 
the  deep  snow  to  melt,  so  that  they  might 
cross  the  mountains. 

Once,  on  June  10,  they  started,  but  snow 
fifteen  feet  deep  forced  them  to  return,  after 
several  accidents.  It  was  essential  that  they 
should  descend  the  Missouri  before  winter 
closed  navigation.  Salt  had  given  out,  they 
were  unable  to  catch  fish,  and  there  was  no 
game  until  they  returned  to  Quamash  (Camas) 
Flats,  where  some  deer  and  bears  were  killed. 
The  explorers  recorded  these  facts  in  their 
journal  without  complaints  or  despondency. 


CHAPTER   XVII 
ACROSS   THE   MOUNTAINS 

A  rough  mountain  road.  Dividing  the  party.  An  adventure 
with  a  grizzly.  Fighting  with  Indians.  An  accident  to 
Captain  Lewis.  His  indomitable  courage.  Passing  the 
Great  Falls  of  the  Missouri.  Lewis  overtakes  Captain 
Clark. 

On  June  24,  after  securing  some  Indian 
guides,  they  set  out  on  a  second  attempt  to 
pass  the  mountains.  This  time,  in  spite  of 
snow,  dangerous  precipices,  and  steep  ascents, 
they  succeeded  in  crossing  the  Bitter  Root 
range.  They  traveled  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
six  miles  in  this  rough  journey  from  Idaho 
into  Montana.  On  June  30  they  reached 
their  old  camp  on  Clark's  River,  Montana. 

They  decided  that  Lewis  and  nine  men 
should  hasten  on  to  the  falls  of  the  Missouri 
and  prepare  for  the  portage  of  canoes  and 
baggage.  Clark  was  to  go  to  the  head  of  the 

171 


172  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Jefferson  River,  which  Sergeant  Ordway  and 
nine  men  were  to  descend,  while  Clark  and 
ten  men  wrere  to  descend  the  Yellowstone. 
This  was  in  order  to  gain  as  much  knowledge 
as  possible  of  the  country. 

Lewis's  journey  to  the  falls  was  uneventful. 
There  wrere  plenty  of  elk  and  other  game,  and 
also,  unfortunately,  of  mosquitoes.  On  open- 
ing their  cache  at  the  falls  they  found  the 
bearskins  and  specimens  of  plants  spoiled  by 
water.  Some  of  the  horses  disappeared,  and 
Drewyer,  the  mightiest  hunter  of  the  party, 
went  on  a  long  and  fruitless  quest  for  them. 
Another  man,  M'Neal,  "approached  a  thicket 
in  which  there  was  a  white  [grizzly]  bear 
which  he  did  not  discover  until  he  was  within 
ten  feet  of  him ;  his  horse  started,  and  wheel- 
ing suddenly  round,  threw  M'Neal  almost 
immediately  under  the  bear.  He  started  up 
instantly,  and  finding  the  bear  raising  himself 
on  his  hind  feet  to  attack  him,  struck  him  on 
the  head  with  the  butt  of  his  musket.  The 
blow  was  so  violent  that  it  broke  the  breech 
of  the  musket  and  knocked  the  bear  to  the 


ACKOSS   THE  MOUNTAINS  173 

ground,  and  before  he  recovered,  M'Neal,  see- 
ing a  willow  tree  close  by,  sprang  up  it  and 
there  stayed,  while  the  bear  closely  guarded 
the  foot  of  the  tree  until  late  in  the  after- 
noon. He  then  went  off  and  M'Neal,  being 
released,  came  down." 

After  preparing  the  carriages  for  the  boats, 
Lewis  started  northward  to  explore  Marias 
River.  They  wrere  in  a  buffalo  country,  and 
there  were  signs  of  Indians.  This  was  the 
land  of  the  troublesome  Blackfoot  and  Min- 
netaree  Indians,  and  the  signs  were  disturb- 
ing. Lewis  followed  up  the  north  fork  of 
Marias  River,  known  as  the  Cut-bank  River, 
in  the  northwest  corner  of  Montana.  He  was 
anxious  to  find  whether  its  source  was  in 
British  America  or  the  United  States.  But 
cloudy  weather  prevented  them  from  taking 
observations,  and  the  chronometer  stopped 
for  a  time  and  they  found  themselves  unable 
to  determine  the  longitude.  Without  exact 
observations  they  could  not  fix  the  boundary 
line.  Finally  they  turned  back,  after  naming 
the  place  Camp  Disappointment. 


174  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

On  the  same  day,  July  26,  they  encoun- 
tered a  band  of  eight  Minnetarees  armed  with 
two  guns  and  bows  and  arrows.  At  first  the 
meeting  was  peaceful,  but  the  white  men 
knew  that  these  Indians  were  treacherous  and 
great  horse  thieves.  They  camped  together, 
but  Lewis  himself  kept  on  watch  until  a  late 
hour  and  then  woke  one  of  his  men.  It  was 
fortunate  that  they  were  vigilant.  Toward 
morning  the  Indians  quietly  rose  and  seized 
the  rifles.  "As  soon  as  Fields  [the  sentinel, 
who  had  carelessly  laid  aside  his  rifle]  turned 
round,  he  saw  the  Indian  running  off  with  the 
rifles,  and  instantly  calling  his  brother  they 
pursued  him  for  fifty  or  sixty  yards,  and  just 
as  they  overtook  him,  in  the  scuffle  for  the 
rifles,  R.  Fields  stabbed  him  through  the  heart 
with  his  knife ;  the  Indian  ran  about  fifteen 
steps  and  fell  dead." 

Meantime  there  was  another  struggle  at 
the  camp.  An  Indian  had  seized  Drewyer's 
rifle,  but  on  the  instant  Drewyer  leaped  up  and 
wrested  it  from  him.  Awakened  by  the  noise 
Captain  Lewis  reached  for  his  rifle  only  to 


ACROSS  THE  MOUNTAINS  175 

see  an  Indian  running  off  with  it.  Drawing 
his  pistol  he  rushed  after  the  Indian,  who 
finally  threw  the  gun  down.  They  had  saved 
their  rifles,  but  their  horses  were  now  in  dan- 
ger. Lewis  ordered  the  men  to  pursue  the 
main  party,  who  were  driving  off  most  of  the 
horses.  He  himself,  bareheaded,  ran  after  two 
Indians  who  were  escaping  with  another  horse. 
He  shouted  breathlessly  that  unless  they  re- 
turned it  he  would  shoot,  and  shoot  he  did, 
wounding  one  of  the  Indians,  who  fired  at  him. 
"  The  shot  had  nearly  been  fatal,  for  Captain 
Lewis  felt  the  wind  of  the  ball  very  distinctly." 
The  result  of  this  little  battle  was  wholly 
favorable  to  the  explorers.  They  lost  one 
horse,  but  captured  four  Indian  horses  and 
some  shields,  bows,  quivers,  and  one  gun 
which  the  Indians  left  in  the  camp.  The 
Indian  killed  by  Fields  was  the  one  to  whom 
they  had  presented  a  medal  the  day  before, 
and  this  they  left  around  his  neck,  "  that 
they  might  be  informed  who  we  were."  The 
patience  and  adroitness  of  the  explorers  had 
kept  them  almost  wholly  free  from  serious 


176  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

trouble  with  the  Indians.  In  this  case  they 
were  forced  to  act  in  self-defense. 

Very  naturally  they  lost  no  time  in  start- 
ing on,  fearing  immediate  pursuit  by  a  larger 
band,  but  they  made  the  journey  back  to  the 
falls  of  the  Missouri  in  safety. 

Lewis  and  his  reunited  party,  who  had  been 
joined  by  Sergeant  Ordway  and  his  men,  passed 
around  the  falls  and  hastened  down  the  river. 
At  the  mouth  of  the  Yellowstone  they  found 
a  note  from  Captain  Clark,  who  was  waiting 
a  few  miles  below.  But  before  they  over- 
took him  their  leader,  Captain  Lewis,  narrowly 
escaped  death.  Landing  with  the  canoeman, 
Cruzatte,  to  hunt  some  elk,  they  took  different 
routes.  "  Just  as  Captain  Lewis  was  taking 
aim  at  an  elk,  a  ball  struck  him  in  the  left 
thigh,  about  an  inch  below  the  joint  of  the 
hip,  and,  missing  the  bone,  went  through  the 
left  thigh,  and  grazed  the  right  to  the  depth 
of  the  ball.  It  instantly  occurred  to  him 
that  Cruzatte  must  have  shot  him  by  mistake 
for  an  elk,  as  he  was  dressed  in  brown  leather, 
and  Cruzatte  had  not  a  very  good  eyesight." 


ACROSS  THE  MOUNTAINS  177 

He  called  to  Cruzatte,  but  received  no  an- 
swer. Fearing  an  Indian  ambush  he  pluck- 
ily  made  his  way  to  the  boat,  shouting  to 
Cruzatte  to  retreat.  He  reached  the  boat, 
and,  wounded  as  he  was,  bravely  led  the  men 
back  to  relieve  Cruzatte.  After  a  hundred 
steps  his  wound  made  it  impossible  for  him 
to  go  on.  Without  thought  of  a  guard  for 
himself,  he  sent  the  men  on,  and  "  limping 
back  to  the  boat,  he  prepared  himself  with  his 
rifle,  a  pistol,  and  the  air-gun,  to  sell  his  life 
dearly  in  case  the  men  should  be  overcome." 

After  all,  it  was  a  false  alarm  as  regarded 
the  Indians.  It  was  Cruzatte  himself  who 
had  shot  Captain  Lewis.  He  had  seen  the 
brown  suit  and  had  mistaken  him  for  an  elk. 

The  suffering  of  Captain  Lewis  wras  none 
the  less  real  as  he  lay  in  the  bottom  of  the 
pirogue  while  they  went  on  to  overtake  Cap- 
tain Clark.  On  August  12  they  met  two  fur 
traders  from  Illinois,  and  on  the  same  day 
they  joined  Captain  Clark,  near  the  mouth  of 
Little  Knife  Creek,  and  the  whole  party  were 
reunited. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

CAPTAIN   CLARK'S    ADVENTURES 

Crossing  to  the  Yellowstone.  The  last  glimpse  of  the  Rockies. 
Buffalo  and  bears.  Reaching  the  Missouri.  Attacked  by 
mosquitoes.  Pryor  loses  the  horses.  Bitten  by  a  wolf. 
The  whole  party  reunited. 

We  must  go  back  for  more  than  a  month  to 
begin  the  story  of  Clark's  exploration  of  the 
Yellowstone  River.  He  had  parted  from  the 
others  on  July  3  at  Traveler's  Rest  Creek  in 
the  Bitter  Root  Mountains  in  western  Mon- 
tana. With  fifteen  men  and  Sacajawea,  her 
child,  and  fifty  horses,  they  traveled  along 
Clark's  River.  On  July  4,  having  made  sixteen 
miles,  "  we  halted  at  an  early  hour  for  the  pur- 
pose of  doing  honor  to  the  birthday  of  our  coun- 
try's independence.  The  festival  was  not  very 
splendid,  for  it  consisted  of  a  mush  made  of 
cows  [cowish]  roots  and  a  saddle  of  venison,  nor 
had  we  anything  to  tempt  us  to  prolong  it." 

178 


CAPTAIN   CLARK'S   ADVENTURES     179 

In  passing  from  the  present  Missoula  County, 
Montana,  to  Beaverhead  County  they  crossed  a 
hill  which  divides  the  flow  of  water  to  the 
Atlantic  from  that  to  the  Pacific.  They  dis- 
covered some  of  the  hot  sulphur  springs  which 
have  since  become  so  familiar.  At  the  forks  of 
the  Jefferson  they  opened  the  cache  made  in 
August,  1805,  and  found  the  hidden  goods 
and  canoes  generally  in  excellent  condition. 
In  their  descent  of  the  Jefferson  they  saw 
"innumerable  quantities  of  beaver  and  otter, 
[and]  the  bushes  of  the  low  grounds  are  a 
favorite  resort  for  deer,  while  on  the  higher 
parts  of  the  valley  are  seen  scattered  groups 
of  antelopes,  and  still  further,  on  the  steep 
sides  of  the  mountains,  we  observed  many  of 
the  big  horn  which  take  refuge  there  from 
the  wolves  and  bear."  This  was  to  the  west- 
ward of  the  present  Bannock  City. 

When  they  reached  the  mouth  of  Madison 
River,  Clark  sent  Sergeant  Ordway  and  nine 
men  on  down  the  Missouri  to  overtake  Lewis 
and  the  others.  Clark  himself,  with  ten  men 
and  Sacajawea,  her  baby,  and  fifty  horses,  set 


180  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

out  from  the  forks  of  the  Missouri  to  reach  the 
Yellowstone  River.  The  travelers  of  to-day 
who  pass  through  Bozeman  Pass  from  Gallatin 
City  to  Livingston  by  the  railroad  are  following 
Captain  Clark's  route  for  much  of  the  way. 

Sacajawea,  always  helpful,  found  edible 
roots,  and  assisted  the  travelers  by  her  recol- 
lections of  the  country.  On  July  15  they 
passed  the  ridge  dividing  the  waters  of  the 
Missouri  and  the  Yellowstone.  Some  of  the 
horses  were  stolen  by  Indians  in  the  night. 
One  of  the  hunters  ''fell  on  a  small  piece  of 
timber,  which  ran  nearly  two  inches  into  the 
muscular  part  of  his  thigh.  The  wound  was 
very  painful,  and  were  it  not  for  their  great 
anxiety  to  reach  the  United  States  this  season, 
the  party  would  have  remained  till  he  was 
cured."  But  it  was  necessary  to  place  him  in 
a  rude  litter  and  to  press  on.  They  reached 
a  tributary  of  the  Yellowstone,  where  they 
made  two  dugouts  which  w^ere  lashed  together. 
Sergeant  Pryor  and  two  others  were  sent  on 
with  the  horses,  and  the  sergeant's  experience 
was  most  unfortunate.  "As  soon  as  they 


CAPTAIN  CLARK'S  ADVENTURES    181 

discovered  a  herd  of  buffalo  the  loose  horses, 
having  been  trained  by  the  Indians  to  hunt, 
immediately  set  off  in  pursuit  of  them,  and 
surrounded  the  buffalo  herd  with  almost  as 
much  skill  as  their  riders  could  have  done. 
At  last  he  was  obliged  to  send  one  horseman 
forward  and  drive  all  the  buffalo  from  the 
route."  But  the  whole  party  aided  in  getting 
most  of  the  horses  across  the  river,  and  Pryor, 
with  an  additional  man,  wras  sent  on  his  way 
to  the  Mandan  villages. 

Clark  and  his  party  wrere  now  descending 
the  Big  Horn  River.  On  an  island  they  found 
a  huge  Indian  lodge,  sixty  feet  in  diameter  at 
the  base,  built  of  poles  covered  with  bushes. 
On  the  tops  of  the  poles  were  eagle  feathers, 
and  from  the  center  hung  a  stuffed  buffalo 
skin.  This  was  probably  a  place  for  councils. 

On  July  27  they  passed  from  the  Big  Horn 
into  the  Yellowstone  and  "  took  a  last  look  at 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  which  had  been  con- 
stantly in  view  from  the  first  of  May." 

As  they  floated  down  the  discolored  waters 
of  the  Yellowstone,  buffalo  appeared  in  vast 


182  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

numbers.  "  Such  was  the  multitude  of  these 
animals,  that,  although  the  river,  including  an 
island,  over  which  they  passed  was  a  mile  in 
length,  the  herd  stretched  as  thick  as  they 
could  swim,  completely  from  one  side  to  the 
other,  and  the  party  was  obliged  to  stop  for  an 
hour.  They  consoled  themselves  for  the  delay 
by  killing  four  of  the  herd,  and  then  proceeded 
a  distance  of  forty-five  miles  on  an  island,  be- 
low which  two  other  herds  of  buffalo,  as  numer- 
ous as  the  first,  soon  after  crossed  the  river." 

On  August  2  Captain  Clark  notes  that  "  the 
bear  which  gave  so  much  trouble  on  the  head 
of  the  Missouri,  are  equally  fierce  in  this 
quarter.  This  morning  one  of  them,  which 
was  on  a  sandbar  as  the  boat  passed,  raised 
himself  on  his  hind  feet,  and  after  looking  at 
the  party,  plunged  in  and  swam  towards  them. 
He  was  received  with  three  balls  in  the  body; 
he  then  turned  round  and  made  for  the  shore." 

On  August  3  they  reached  the  junction  of 
the  Yellowstone  and  the  Missouri,  where  they 
had  made  their  camp  on  April  26,  1805. 
But  swarms  of  mosquitoes  gave  them  such  a 


CAPTAIX   CLARK'S   ADVENTURES     183 

reception  that  they  moved  their  camp  farther 
down  the  river  to  await  the  coming  of  Cap- 
tain Lewis.  Of  Sacajawea's  poor  little  child 
we  read,  u  The  face  of  the  Indian  child  is 
considerably  puffed  up  and  swollen  with  the 
bites  of  these  animals."  The  men  themselves 
could  procure  scarcely  any  sleep.  When  Clark 
tried  to  hunt  lie  could  not  keep  the  mosqui- 
toes from  the  barrel  of  his  rifle  long  enough 
to  take  aim. 

Sergeant  Pryor's  adventures  with  the  horses 
were  most  trying.  At  the  outset.,  as  we  saw, 
he  lost  some  and  had  much  difficulty  in  man- 
aging the  others.  He  arid  his  companions 
overtook  Clark  on  August  8,  but  they  had  no 
horses  at  all.  They  could  only  report  that 
the  horses  had  disappeared  in  the  night.  All 
that  they  were  able  to  find  were  the  tracks  of 
the  Indians  who  had  stolen  them. 

But  Pryor's  troubles  did  not  end  here.  "  On 
the  following  night  a  wolf  bit  him  through 
the  hand  as  he  lay  asleep,  and  made  an 

•j 

attempt  to  seize  Windsor,  when  Shannon  dis- 
covered and  shot  him." 


184  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

The  ingenuity  of  these  men  was  equal  to 
the  emergency.  When  the  horses  disappeared, 
they  imitated  the  Mandans  by  making  boats 
of  buffalo  skins  stretched  around  hoops  and 
ribbed  with  sticks,  and  in  these  frail  vessels 
they  floated  safely  down  the  river  until  they 
overtook  Captain  Clark. 

On  August  11  Clark  encountered  two  white 
fur  traders  from  the  country  of  the  Illinois, 
and  from  these  adventurers  they  gathered 
some  news  of  the  lower  country.  The  fur 
traders  and  trappers  were  always  among  the 
first  pioneers  and  explorers  of  the  far  West. 

On  August  12  they  were  overtaken  by  the 
boats  commanded  by  Captain  Lewis,  who  was 
lying  wounded  in  the  pirogue. 

The  party  was  now  reunited,  and  they 
started  again  on  their  way  to  the  villages  of 
the  Minnetarees  and  the  Mandans. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

OX   THE    WAY   HOME 

At  the  Mandau  villages  again.  Big  White  accompanies  the 
explorers.  Colter  remains  in  the  wilderness.  His  subse- 
quent discovery  of  the  Yellowstone  Park.  Parting  with 
the  faithful  squaw.  Descending  the  river.  The  arrival  at 
St.  Louis.  The  news  in  Washington.  The  later  life  of 
Lewis  and  Clark. 

Since  it  was  near  the  Mandan  villages  that 
the  explorers  had  passed  their  first  winter,  they 
felt  comparatively  at  home.  But  they  learned 
that  their  constant  admonitions  to  keep  the 
peace  had  not  been  followed  by  the  neigh- 
bors of  the  Mandans,  the  Minnetarees,  who 
also  were  asked  to  a  grand  council.  There 
had  been  fights  with  Arikaras  and  Sioux,  and 
the  explorers  were  obliged  to  try  the  part  of 
peacemakers  again. 

One  of  the  main  objects  of  the  council  was 
to  persuade  some  chiefs  to  accompany  the 
explorers  to  Washington  to  see  the  Great 

185 


186  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Father,  as  they  called  the  President.  This 
was  very  desirable,  because  the  sight  of  the 
white  people  and  their  cities  would  impress  the 
Indians  and  tend  to  make  them  more  docile. 
But  the  Minnetaree  chief  excused  himself  on 
the  plea  that  he  was  afraid  of  being  killed  by 
the  Sioux,  which  was  simply  a  pretext  to  avoid 
a  journey  that  he  did  not  care  to  make.  The 
Indians  were  probably  suspicious  and  preferred 
their  own  life  to  that  of  the  white  men.  But 
at  last  Shahakas  (Big  White),  a  Mandan  chief, 
agreed  to  go  to  Washington.1 

1  Lewis  and  Clark  promised  Big  White  a  safe  return, 
and  he  did  return  finally,  after  some  curious  adventures 
described  in  Chittenden's  "History  of  the  American  Fur 
Trade."  In  1807,  after  his  visit  to  Washington,  an  expedi- 
tion was  organized  at  St.  Louis  to  escort  Big  White,  his 
interpreter,  their  wives  and  two  children,  back  to  the  Man- 
dan  villages.  It  was  commanded  by  Pryor,  who  had  been 
promoted  to  the  rank  of  ensign  for  his  services  in  the  Lewis 
and  Clark  expedition.  Evidently  his  loss  of  the  horses  was 
not  charged  against  him.  But  when  the  party  reached  the 
Arikaras,  these  Indians  demanded  goods,  and  also  the  sur- 
render of  Big  White.  Pryor  refused  to  give  him  up.  A 
battle  followed  and  several  were  killed  and  wounded  on 
each  side.  The  party  were  finally  obliged  to  return,  and 
Big  White  was  carried  back  to  St.  Louis.  In  1809  Captain 


A  MAN  DAN  CHIEF 


ON  THE  WAY  HOME  187 

The  party  were  now  well  on  their  way 
home,  but  the  fascination  of  the  wilderness 
was  so  strong  that  one  of  the  men,  John 
Colter,  a  most  skillful  hunter,  applied  for  per- 
mission to  leave  the  expedition  and  join  some 
trappers  who  wrere  going  up  the  river.  He 
had  been  away  many  years  from  the  frontiers, 
but  just  as  he  was  approaching  civilization  he 
turned  his  back  upon  it,  preferring  the  wild 
life  of  the  plains  and  mountains.1  His  choice 

Lewis,  then  governor  of  upper  Louisiana,  or  Missouri  terri- 
tory, made  a  contract  in  behalf  of  the  United  States  with 
the  newly  organized  Missouri  Fur  Company  for  the  return 
of  Big  "White  under  pain  of  forfeiture  of  three  thousand 
dollars.  This  time  the  effort  was  successful,  and  the  much- 
suffering  Big  White  was  restored  to  his  friends  and  home, 
after  an  absence  of  three  years.  For  this  it  was  agreed 
that  the  company  should  receive  seven  thousand  dollars, 
which  made  Big  White  a  costly  visitor  for  the  government. 
1  For  Colter  this  was  the  beginning  of  years  of  strange 
adventures.  In  the  winter  of  1806-1807  he  camped  in  the 
valley  of  the  Yellowstone  River.  When  returning  in  the 
spring  of  1807  he  met  a  party  directed  by  Manuel  Lisa, 
the  famous  fur  trader,  and  turned  back  to  the  wilderness  a 
second  time.  He  was  sent  on  a  long  and  perilous  journey 
across  the  Wind  River  Mountains  and  the  Teton  Range  to 
confer  with  the  Blackfoot  nation.  But  he  became  involved 
in  an  Indian  war  and  was  obliged  to  fight  with  the  Crows 


188  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

brought  him  a  permanent  place  in  the  history 
of  the  West.  The  next  year  he  became  the 
discoverer  of  the  natural  wonders  now  in- 
cluded in  the  Yellowstone  National  Park. 

As  none  of  the  Minnetarees  would  accom- 
pany the  explorers  to  Washington.,  Chaboneau 
the  interpreter,  with  his  wife  Sacajawea  and 
their  child,  decided  to  remain  here.  "  This 
man  has  been  very  serviceable  to  us,"  says  the 

against  the  Blackfeet.  In  endeavoring  to  regain  Lisa's 
party  he  crossed  the  Yellowstone  National  Park  alone  and 
saw  the  geysers.  This  was  a  wonderful  journey  in  its 
extent  and  its  discoveries.  The  next  spring,  1808,  he 
started  again  for  the  Blackfeet.  His  companion  was  killed. 
He  was  captured,  stripped  naked,  and  turned  loose  to  run 
for  his  life  before  a  multitude  of  yelling  warriors,  lie  ran 
until  the  blood  burst  from  his  nose  and  mouth.  He  out- 
stripped all  the  Indians  save  one.  That  one  he  killed,  and 
•with  a  last  effort  ran  on  to  the  river,  where  he  dived  under 
fallen  logs.  There  he  hid,  while  the  Indians  searched  above 
him,  "  screeching  and  yelling  like  so  many  devils,"  until  at 
night  he  swam  down  the  river  and  made  his  way  naked 
and  half-starved  to  Lisa's  fort.  In  1809  he  descended  the 
Missouri  to  St.  Louis,  three  thousand  miles  alone.  He  met 
Clark  and  aided  him  in  the  preparation  of  his  map,  upon 
which  Clark  traced  Colter's  route.  The  last  days  of  the 
discoverer  of  the  Yellowstone  Park  were  passed  peacefully 
on  a  farm  above  La  Charette  Creek  near  St.  Louis,  where 
he  died,  probably  in  1813. 


ON  THE  WAY  HOME  189 

journal,  "  and  his  wife  particularly  useful 
among  the  Shoshonees.  Indeed,  she  has 
borne  with  a  patience  truly  admirable  the 
fatigues  of  so  long  a  route,  incumbered  with 
the  charge  of  an  infant,  who  is  even  now 
only  nineteen  months  old.  We  therefore 
paid  him  his  wages,  amounting  to  five  hun- 
dred dollars  and  thirty-three  cents,  including 
the  price  of  a  horse  and  a  lodge  purchased 
of  him."  With  this  we  see  the  last  of  this 
devoted  and  courageous  woman. 

It  was  time  to  start.  Big  White,  uncon- 
scious of  the  many  adventures  before  him, 
parted  with  his  friends  and  the  weeping 
squaws.  The  whole  village  crowded  about 
the  explorers  and  assured  them  that  they 
would  remember  their  words  and  obey  the 
Great  Father  and  keep  the  peace,  except  when 
attacked  by  the  Sioux,  and  on  August  17 
they  started  down  the  river  on  the  last  long 
stretch  of  their  homeward  journey. 

These  friendly  relations  offer  a  sharp  con- 
trast to  the  hostile  attitude  of  the  early 
Spanish  explorers  in  the  south. 


190  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Presently  they  met  Arikaras  and  Cheyennes, 
with  whom  they  held  councils,  but  these  were 
brief  for  they  wished  to  press  on,  and  on  the 
25th  they  made  forty-eight  miles  with  the 
oars.  Their  meeting  with  a  band  of  Teton- 
Sioux  was  less  pacific.  These  treacherous 
savages  were  forbidden  to  come  to  the  camp, 
and  the  men  were  kept  under  arms. 

When  they  encountered  traders  ascending 
the  river  they  learned  news  of  the  civilized 
world.  General  James  Wilkinson,  afterwards 
notorious  from  charges  of  bribery,  and  of  com- 
plicity with  the  treason  of  which  Aaron  Burr 
was  accused,  had  been  made  governor  of  Lou- 
isiana territory.1  In  the  diary  of  Sergeant 
Gass  there  is  a  reference  to  the  death  of 
Alexander  Hamilton,  who  had  been  killed  by 
Burr  at  Weehawken,  opposite  New  York,  on 
July  11,  1804,  more  than  two  years  before. 
Nothing-  could  more  vividly  bring;  out  the  loner 

o  J  o  o 

and  remote  isolation  of  these  explorers  than 
the  sergeant's  prompt  note    of   this    belated 

1  Wilkinson's  escapes  from  convictions  by  courts-martial 
failed  to  clear  his  character. 


ON  THE  WAY  HOME  191 

piece  of  news :  "  Mr.  Burr  &  Genl.  Hambleton 
fought  a  Duel,  the  latter  was  killed." 

After  passing  the  mouth  of  the  Platte  they 
encountered  Gravelines,  the  interpreter  whom 
they  had  sent  from  Fort  Mandan  in  1805  to 
convey  an  Arikara  chief  (who  died  in  Wash- 
ington), their  reports,  and  some  specimens  of 
natural  history  to  the  capital. 

On  they  went,  passing  through  the  coun- 
try of  the  Kansas  Indians  without  any  of  the 
hostilities  which  they  were  prepared  to  meet. 
They  encountered  more  traders  and  learned 
that  the  general  opinion  in  the  United  States 
was  that  they  were  lost.  Even  in  this  last 
stretch  of  the  long  journey  they  suffered  from 
scanty  supplies,  and  the  journal  notes  the 
gathering  of  pawpaw  fruit  for  food. 

On  the  20th,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Gascon- 
ade, above  St.  Louis,  they  saw  some  cows 
feeding,  "  and  the  whole  party  almost  invol- 
untarily raised  a  shout  of  joy  at  seeing  this 
image  of  civilization  and  domestic  life." 

At  the  French  village  of  La  Charette  the 
inhabitants  and  traders  "  were  all  equally 


192  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

surprised  and  pleased  at  our  arrival,  for  they 
had  long  since  abandoned  all  hopes  of  ever 
seeing  us  return." 

On  the  21st  the  village  of  St.  Charles  turned 
out  to  welcome  them.  The  next  day  they  passed 
with  an  encampment  of  troops  at  Coldwater 
Creek,  and  then,  on  '•  Tuesday  [September] 
23,  descended  the  Mississippi  and  round  to 
St.  Louis,  where  we  arrived  at  twelve  o'clock, 
and  having  fired  a  salute  went  on  shore  and 
received  the  heartiest  and  most  hospitable 
welcome  from  the  whole  village." 

They  had  successfully  completed  the  great- 
est of  American  explorations,  a  wilderness 
journey  covering  eight  thousand  miles  and 
lasting  for  two  years  and  four  months.1 

1  Great  as  this  journey  was,  it  has  sometimes  been  sub- 
ject to  misconceptions.  "First  across  the  Continent  "is 
the  title  chosen  by  Mr.  Xoah  Brooks  for  his  narrative  of 
Lewis  and  Clark.  They  were  not  the  first.  Cabeza  de  Vaca 
crossed  the  continent  on  the  south  nearly  three  hundred 
years  before.  Coronado  and  De  Soto  between  them  practi- 
cally traversed  the  continent.  Of  the  explorers  in  British 
North  America  on  the  north,  two  are  preeminent,  Samuel 
Hearne  and  Alexander  Mackenzie.  In  1771-1772  Ilearne 
gained  the  distinction  of  being  the  first  white  man  to  reach 


ON  THE  WAY  HOME  193 

Captain  Lewis  at  once  sent  letters  to  Presi- 
dent Jefferson  announcing  his  return,  which 
took  nearly  a  month  to  reach  Washington.  Jef- 
ferson's reply,  dated  October  20,  expressed  his 
"unspeakable  joy  "at  the  news,  the  first  that 
had  reached  him  since  Gravelines  brought  their 
message  from  the  Mandan  villages  in  1805. 

Early  in  1807  the  two  leaders  went  to 
Washington,  where  they  met  with  a  most 
enthusiastic  reception.  Congress  voted  fif- 
teen hundred  acres  of  public  land  to  Lewis 
and  a  thousand  to  Clark.  It  is  characteris- 
tic that  LewTis  did  not  wish  to  receive  more 
land  than  Clark.  The  officers  were  voted 
double  pay,  and  each  of  the  other  members 

Lake  Athabasca  and  the  Coppermine  River,  which  he  fol- 
lowed to  the  Arctic  Ocean.  lie  proved  that  the  belief  in  a 
northwest  passage  from  Hudson  Bay  to  the  Pacific  was 
unfounded,  although  the  tradition  lingered  even  after  his 
journey.  In  1793  a  more  famous  explorer,  Alexander 
Mackenzie,  made  a  successful  expedition  westward  from 
Lake  Athabasca.  He  passed  through  the  mountains  and 
descended  the  Fraser  River  in  British  Columbia  to  the  sea. 
This  was  the  first  journey  across  the  continent,  with  the 
exception  of  Cabeza  de  Vaca's  flight  far  to  the  south.  It 
might  well  be  called  a  "  Xorthwest  Passage  by  land,"  to 
apply  a  phrase  used  by  a  later  traveler. 


194  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

of  the  expedition  received  three  hundred  acres 
of  land.1 

In  telling  the  story  of  this  wonderful  jour- 
ney it  has  not  been  desirable  to  give  the 
elaborate  results  of  the  minute  observations 
made  by  the  explorers.  In  addition  to  the 

1  Captain  Lewis  was  appointed  governor  of  Louisiana 
territory  in  1807  and  resigned  from  the  army.  Captain 
Clark  was  appointed  general  of  the  militia  of  the  territory 
and  Indian  agent. 

The  whole  Purchase  had  been  divided  into  the  terri- 
tory of  Orleans,  representing  roughly  the  present  state  of 
Louisiana,  and  Louisiana  territory,  which  was  all  the  rest 
north  of  the  state. 

Captain  Lewis's  end  was  a  sad  one.  On  a  journey  to 
Washington  in  1809  he  stayed  for  the  night  at  a  rough 
wayside  inn  near  Memphis,  Tennessee.  In  the  morning  he 
was  found  dead,  probably  by  his  own  hand,  for  he  was 
subject  to  attacks  of  great  depression. 

Captain  Clark  was  offered  a  commission  as  brigadier 
general  in  the  War  of  1812  with  the  command  held  by  the 
unsuccessful  General  Hull  on  the  northwestern  frontier, 
but  he  declined  to  serve.  In  1813  President  Madison 
appointed  him  governor  of  Missouri  territory,  as  upper 
Louisiana  w*as  then  called.  He  served  until  Missouri 
became  a  state  in  1821,  when  lie  was  a  candidate  for 
governor,  but  was  defeated.  In  1822  President  Monroe 
made  him  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs,  an  office 
which  he  filled  successfully  until  his  death  at  St.  Louis 
in  18:38. 


ON    THE   WAY   HOME  195 

many  notes  upon  Indians,  soil,  flora,  and  fauna 
in  the  narrative,  the  journals  are  accompanied 
by  a  long  appendix.  This  contains  tables  and 
notes  giving  the  names  and  estimated  number 
of  the  Indian  tribes,  daily  records  of  weather 
and  wind,  notes  upon  the  rivers,  and  care- 
ful memoranda  regarding  soil,  vegetation,  and 
animals.  These  observations  and  the  careful 
surveys  and  maps  testify  to  the  thoroughness 
and  knowledge  with  which  the  explorers  did 
their  work,  just  as  the  story  which  we  have 
followed  shows  their  ingenuity  and  persever- 
ance, their  tact  in  dealing  with  obstacles,  and 
their  courage  in  the  face  of  danger.  The 
journey  which  they  made  is  one  of  the  world's 
greatest  explorations,  and  its  story  has  become 
a  classic  among  the  travel  tales  of  history. 


L  0  I)  I  S  I  A  N  A 


PART  III 
THE   EXPLORATION   OF   THE   WEST 


CHAPTER    XX 
PIKE'S   EXPLORATIONS 

Ascending  the  Mississippi.  A  second  expedition  westward. 
Hostile  Spanish  influence.  Into  Colorado.  The  first 
glimpse  of  Pike's  Peak.  Oil  the  upper  Arkansas.  Disap- 
pointment and  privation.  In  Spanish  territory.  Captured 
by  the  Spaniards.  Pike's  return  and  death. 

While  the  Lewis  and  Clark  expedition  was 
struggling  across  the  mountains  in  1805  an- 
other explorer  was  on  his  way  from  St.  Louis 
northward.  Lewis  and  Clark  were  sent  by 
the  President,  and  theirs  was  the  first  govern- 
mental exploration  of  the  Louisiana  territory. 
The  second  exploration  was  a  military  one,  and 
wras  the  first  military  expedition  sent  into  the 
new  country.  It  was  commanded  by  Lieuten- 
ant Zebulon  M.  Pike,  a  young  army  officer, 
born  in  Lamberton,  New^  Jersey,  in  1779. 

In  1805  General  James  Wilkinson,  the  com- 
manding officer  of  the  army,  ordered  Lieutenant 

199 


200  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Pike  to  ascend  the  Mississippi  to  its  head 
waters.  He  was  to  make  the  sovereignty 
of  the  United  States  known  to  the  Indians 
and  Canadian  traders.  He  was  to  observe 
the  country,  and  to  ascertain  if  possible  the 
sources  of  the  Mississippi. 

It  was  on  August  9,  1805,  that  Lieutenant 
Pike  left  St.  Louis  with  twenty  men  to  carry 
out  his  orders.  They  traveled  in  a  keel  boat 
seventy  feet  long.  Provisions  for  four  months 
were  carried,  but  as  it  turned  out  nearly  nine 
months  passed  before  they  returned.  They 
ascended  the  river  with  few  adventures  and 
on  September  22  they  camped  near  the  site 
of  the  present  city  of  St.  Paul,  where  they 
held  a  council  with  the  Sioux. 

From  this  point,  undeterred  by  cold  and 
scanty  supplies,  they  made  a  plucky  winter 
journey  to  Leech  Lake  (Minnesota),  which  Pike 
supposed,  erroneously,  to  be  the  main  source 
of  the  Mississippi.  He  overlooked  the  real 
source,  Lake  Itasca.  They  reached  Leech  Lake 
on  February  1.  but  after  various  explorations 
and  some  negotiations  witli  the  Indians,  which 


PIKE'S  EXPLORATIONS  201 

included  a  treaty  with  the  Sioux,  they  turned 
back.  Of  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  Pike  gives 
a  vivid  picture,  and  his  journal  is  full  of 
interest,  although  less  detailed  than  that  of 
Lewis  and  Clark.  On  April  30  the  expedition 
returned  to  St.  Louis.  The  lieutenant  had 
learned  much  about  the  upper  river,  although 
he  was  mistaken  as  to  its  source,  and  his 
expedition  had  succeeded  in  proclaiming  the 
dominion  of  the  United  States. 

More  important  and  more  closely  associated 
with  our  narrative  was  Pike's  second  expedi- 
tion. In  July,  1806,  he  left  St.  Louis  with  a 
military  party  numbering  twenty-three,  under 
orders  from  General  Wilkinson  to  travel  west- 
ward into  the  interior  of  Louisiana,  to  reach 
the  sources  of  the  Arkansas  River,  and  to 
explore  the  mountains  of  the  present  state  of 
Colorado.  He  also  escorted  to  their  homes 
fifty-one  Osage  and  Pawnee  chiefs  and  their 
people  who  had  visited  Washington. 

The  first  part  of  Pike's  route  was  by  water 
up  the  Missouri,  and  then  up  the  Osage  to 
the  villages  of  the  Osas;e  Indians.  Thence 


202  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

he  traveled  overland  through  Kansas  to  a 
Pawnee  village. 

The  cession  of  Louisiana  with  its  indefinite 
boundaries  had  already  caused  complications 
with  the  Spaniards,  who  held  the  southwest, 
including  the  present  state  of  Texas.  They 
had  heard  of  Pike's  expedition  and  had  sent 
an  armed  force  to  turn  him  back  from  any 
territory  which  they  claimed,  or  to  make 
him  a  prisoner.  Out  of  this  grew  trouble 
later. 

The  Spaniards  had  held  a  council  with  the 
Pawnees  and  had  made  them  presents  of  flags. 
Even  after  Pike  had  explained  to  them  the 
American  ownership  of  the  country,  and  an 
old  Pawnee  warrior  had  obediently  brought 
out  a  Spanish  flag  and  taking  it  from  its  staff 
replaced  it  with  the  American  flag,  the  Pawnee 
chief  tried  to  keep  the  Americans  from  con- 
tinuing westward,  saying  that  he  had  prom- 
ised the  Spaniards  to  intercept  them.  But 
Pike  kept  resolutely  on. 

As  they  crossed  the  plains  they  saw  the  old 
camps  of  the  Spanish  troops  who  had  preceded 


PIKE'S  EXPLORATIONS  203 

them.  Buffalo,  wild  horses,  and  prairie  dogs 
furnished  variety  to  the  journey,  but  between 
the  Indians  on  the  one  hand  and  Spaniards 
on  the  other  the  march  was  not  a  cheerful 
one. 

They  turned  southward  and  reached  the 
Arkansas  River  near  the  present  town  of 
Great  Bend,  Kansas.  There  Pike  sent  some 
of  his  men  down  the  river,  while  with  the 
others  he  ascended  into  Colorado  and  camped 
at  the  site  of  the  later  city  of  Pueblo. 

On  November  15,  while  on  the  Purgatory 
River  and  about  a  week  before  they  reached 
Pueblo,  Pike  made  the  discovery  which  has 
served  in  a  sense  as  his  monument.  He 
writes :  "  I  thought  I  could  distinguish  a 
mountain  to  our  right  which  appeared  like 
a  small  blue  cloud ;  viewed  it  with  the  spy- 
glass and  was  still  more  confirmed  in  my  con- 
jecture ;  ...  in  half  an  hour  they  [the  moun- 
tains] appeared  in  full  view  before  us.  When 
our  small  party  arrived  on  the  hill  they  with 
one  accord  gave  three  cheers  to  the  Mexican 
Mountains." 


204  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

This  was  the  main  range  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  the  ''blue  cloud"  is  known 
to  this  day  as  Pike's  Peak. 

On  the  24th  Pike  and  a  few  companions  left 
the  camp  which  they  had  made  at  Pueblo,  in  the 
hope  of  climbing  the  peak.  He  was  not  accus- 
tomed to  mountains  like  these  or  to  the  rarefied 
air,  which  makes  the  distance  seem  much  less. 
The  peak  was  really  fifty  miles  away  in  an  air 
line  and  a  hundred  by  land.  They  traveled 
many  miles  and  climbed  lower  mountain  ridges, 
only  to  find  the  summit  of  the  "  Grand  Peak  " 
still  towering  distantly  above  them.  What 
with  snow,  thin  clothing,  and  scanty  food,  the 
party  were  in  a  wretched  condition,  and  on 
the  27th  they  turned  back  to  the  camp.  Thus 
ended  the  first  attempt  to  climb  Pike's  Peak.1 

Continuing  their  ascent  of  the  Arkansas, 
the  party  reached  the  present  site  of  Canon 
City,  where  the  Grand  Canon  withheld  a  pas- 
sage yielded  years  later  to  the  railroad. 

1  The  motto  of  the  later  gold  seekers  in  the  fifties  was 
"  Pike's  Peak  or  Bust."  Some  of  them  were  forced  to 
change  it  to  "  Busted."  Pike  might  have  done  the  same. 


PIKE'S  EXPLORATIONS  205 

Turning  aside  they  ascended  Oil  Creek  to 
South  Park,  passed  along  the  South  Platte, 
and,  continuing.,  again  reached  the  Arkansas. 


PIKE'S  PKAK  TRAIL  AT  MIXNEHAHA  FALLS 

In  spite  of  the  bitter  cold  of  a  Rocky  Moun- 
tain winter.  Pike  ascended  the  Arkansas  to  its 
sources  near  Leadville,  and  descended  it  to 
Canon  City.  This  was  another  disappointment,, 


206  LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 

for  he  had  thought  himself  on  the  Red  River, 
whose  sources  he  had  been  instructed  to 
discover. 

On  January  14,  1807,  notwithstanding  the 
midwinter  weather,  Pike  pluckily  started  out 
to  find  the  Red  River.  He  made  his  way  up 
Grape  Creek,  which  flows  into  the  Arkansas, 
and  through  the  Wet  Mountain  valley.  Food 
was  scarce.  The  men  were  frost-bitten  and 
some  of  them  crippled  for  life.  But  they 
kept  on  over  the  Sangre  de  Cristo  Range  into 
the  San  Luis  valley.  There  he  descended  the 
Rio  Grande.  On  reaching  the  entrance  of  the 
Rio  Conejos  on  January  31,  he  built  a  stockade 
and  encamped.  He  was  now  in  southern  Colo- 
rado, and  his  search  for  the  Red  River  had  led 
him  into  Spanish  territory.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
the  "  Red  "  river  was  really  the  Canadian,  which 
rises  not  far  from  Santa  Fe  in  New  Mexico. 

Pike  himself  was  carrying  out  Wilkinson's 
orders,  but  just  what  these  orders  were  is 
doubtful.  Wilkinson  was  implicated  in  the 
plot  attributed  to  Aaron  Burr  to  found  a 
new  empire  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi. 


ZEBULON  M.  PIKE 


PIKE'S   EXPLORATIONS  207 

The  historian  McMaster  thinks  that  Pike  was 
ordered  to  descend  into  Mexico  as  a  part 
of  this  plot.  But  Pike  himself  denied  any 
knowledge  of  such  motives,  and  it  seems  cer- 
tain that  whatever  Wilkinson's  intentions 
were.  Pike  was  entirely  innocent.  There  is 
a  certain  mystery  over  the  reasons  for  this 
invasion  of  Spanish  territory. 

Whatever  the  exact  facts  were,  the  result 
was  the  arrest  of  Pike  and  his  party  on  Febru- 
ary 26  by  a  Spanish  force.  It  was  done  under 
the  guise  of  a  polite  invitation  to  visit  the 
Spanish  governor  at  Santa  Fe.  Pike  was 
taken  into  Mexico  as  a  prisoner,  but  after 
many  journeys  he  was  escorted  through  Texas 
and  delivered  to  his  countrymen  at  Natchi- 
toches,  Louisiana,  on  July  1,  1807. 

Thus  the  expedition  had  an  unfortunate 
ending.  But  the  value  of  Pike's  explora- 
tions of  the  central  part  of  the  Purchase  will 
always  be  an  honor  to  his  memory.1 

1  In  the  War  of  1812  lie  was  made  a  brigadier  general. 
He  died  in  battle,  killed  when  storming  the  batteries  of 
York,  the  capital  of  Upper  Canada. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

ROUTES   OF   EXPLORATION 

The  great  water  ways.  Importance  of  the  Missouri.  The 
Santa  Fd,  Overland,  and  Oregon  trails.  The  fur  trade 
the  chief  industry.  Its  effect  on  exploration. 

After  these  pioneer  American  explorations 
came  the  extension  of  the  fur  trade,  the  earlier 
expeditions  to  Santa  Fe,  the  overland  journey 
to  Astoria  in  1811-1813,  the  exploits  of  lead- 
ers like  William  H.  Ashley,  and  the  journeys 
of  "VVyeth  and  others.  But  before  the  story  of 
exploration  is  followed  farther  it  will  be  help- 
ful to  note  the  beginning  of  regular  routes 
from  the  great  central  valley  to  the  vague  con- 
fines of  Louisiana  and  beyond  to  the  sea. 

Nature  did  much  for  the  explorers  and 
builders  of  the  West  in  offering  them  passage 
on  the  great  rivers  flowing  from  the  mountains 
to  the  central  valley  of  the  continent.  Man, 

208 


ROUTES  OF  EXPLORATION 


209 


following  in  the  footsteps  of  buffalo  and  elk 
along  land  routes  where  nature  had  smoothed 


EMIGRANT  TRAIN   CROSSING   THE  PLAINS 

the  way  and  cleft  the  mountains,  wore  deeper 
the  pathways,  which  became  historic  trails. 


210  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Sometimes  the  paths  of  animals,  of  hunters, 
trappers,  gold  seekers,  and"  emigrants,  became 
the  route  of  the  railroad,  —  a  route  with  an 
almost  forgotten  history. 

Without  the  water  routes  the  exploration 
and  later  development  of  the  vast  interior 
known  as  Louisiana  would  have  been  a  differ- 
ent story.  The  Great  Lakes  offered  a  high- 
way for  the  French.  The  Wisconsin  River 
led  them  to  the  first  explorations  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  the  discovery  that  it  flowed  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  not  to  the  western 
sea.  In  the  early  Spanish  history  the  navi- 
gation of  rivers  played  an  insignificant  part, 
but  for  French  explorers,  trappers,  and  traders 
the  water  ways  were  all-important. 

East  of  the  Mississippi  the  Ohio  was  the 
greatest  of  the  historic  water  ways.  It  was 
down  the  Ohio  and  other  tributaries  of  the 
Mississippi  that  there  poured  the  wave  of 
pioneer  conquest  which  was  to  sweep  away 
any  foreign  possession  of  Louisiana. 

West  of  the  Mississippi  there  were  the 
Osage,  the  Kansas,  the  Arkansas,  the  Red 


ROUTES   OF  EXPLORATION  211 

River,  and  the  Platte,  all  early  routes  of  con- 
sequence, and,  by  far  the  greatest  from  every 
point  of  view,  there  was  the  Missouri.1 

The  water  which  has  its  source  at  the  head 
of  the  Jefferson  fork  of  the  Missouri,  on  the 
Rocky  Mountain  dividing  line  between  Mon- 
tana and  Idaho,  reaches  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
after  a  journey  of  forty- two  hundred  and 
twenty-one  miles.  The  enormous  extent  of 
the  Mississippi's  drainage  basin  is  illustrated 
by  the  fact  that  the  water  which  passes 
through  the  great  river's  mouth  to  the  sea 
comes  from  no  fewer  than  twenty-eight  states 
and  the  Indian  territory.2  The  Missouri-Mis- 
sissippi reckoned  as  a  continuous  water  route 
forms  the  longest  river  in  the  world.  Its 

1  The  month  of  the  Missouri  was  discovered  by  Mar- 
quette  and  Joliet  in  1673.     The  river  was  entered  about 
1700   by  the   French,   who   ascended  farther  and  farther, 
until  Chittenden  estimates  that  by  the  time  St.  Louis  was 
founded  in  1704  the  river  had  been  explored  for  a  thousand 
miles.     In  1804   Lewis  and  Clark  had   been  preceded  by 
white  men  almost  up  to  the  mouth  of  the  Yellowstone. 

2  Mr.  George  Gary  Eggleston's  story,  "  The  Last  of  the 
Flat-boats,"  gives  a  suggestive  popular  sketch  of  the  magni- 
tude, political  consequence,  and  peculiarities  of  this  system. 


212  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

tortuous  way,  its  frequent  changes  of  course, 
and  its  destructive  floods  have  presented  prob- 
lems yet  unsolved.  The  time  may  come  when 
great  reservoirs  will  gather  the  surplus  waters 
of  floods  like  those  of  the  spring  of  1903,  but, 
in  spite  of  the  attempts  of  man,  the  Missouri 
remains  as  unfettered  as  when  Marquette  and 
Joliet  shrank  appalled  from  the  seething  tor- 
rent at  its  mouth.  Historically  the  part  of 
the  Missouri  has  been  of  the  first  importance. 
"For  fully  a  hundred  years"  (up  to  about 
1875),  says  Chittenden,  "the  history  of  the 
Missouri  River  was  the  history  of  the  country 
through  which  it  flowed."  The  explorer,  trap- 
per and  trader,  priest  and  soldier,  prospector, 
miner,  and  buffalo  hunter,  and  the  military 
forces  of  the  United  States1  swelled  the  number 

1  As  early  as  1819,  when  the  first  steamboat  entered  the 
Missouri,  arrangements  were  made,  but  not  carried  out,  for 
the  transportation  of  troops  to  the  Yellowstone.  In  1825 
troops  were  carried  in  keel  boats  propelled  by  wheels 
turned  by  hand.  After  1855  the  steamboat  played  a  large 
part  in  military  operations  along  the  Missouri  and  its  tribu- 
taries. Of  the  various  dramatic  incidents  of  the  steamboat 
days  in  the  remote  Northwest,  one  of  the  most  stirring  was 
the  run  of  the  Far  Went  after  the  Custer  massacre  in 


ROUTES  OF  EXPLORATION  213 

of  travelers  upon  this  great  water  way.  The 
early  nineteenth  century  brought  a  new  and 
most  important  era  in  the  coming  of  the  steam- 
boat.1 Another  chapter  was  opened  later  in 
the  transportation  of  troops  ;  and  still  another 
a  little  later  in  the  northwestern  discoveries 
of  gold.2  Taking  the  Missouri-Mississippi  as 

1876.  Down  the  narrow  and  unknown  Big  Horn,  down 
the  dangerous  Yellowstone  and  the  Missouri,  the  Far 
West  was  driven  with  the  speed  of  a  railway  train,  bring- 
ing to  Bismarck  her  load  of  wounded  soldiers  and  the 
full  reports  of  the  battle  —  a  thousand  miles  in  fifty-four 
hours. 

In  1877  General  Miles's  good  fortiine  in  finding  a  steam- 
boat near  the  mouth  of  the  Muscleshell  (Musselshell)  en- 
abled him  to  gain  sufficiently  on  Chief  Joseph  and  the 
fleeing  Xez  Perec's,  who  were  nearing  British  soil,  to  over- 
take them  within  fifty  miles  of  the  boundary  line. 

1  A  steamboat  was  built  at  Pittsburg  as  early  as  1811 
and  descended  to  New  Orleans. 

2  In  18G3  came  the  rich  Alder  Gulch  discovery  of  gold 
placers  on  a  branch  of  the  Jefferson  fork  of  the  Missouri, 
and  the  following  year  the  gold  of  Last  Chance  Gulch  laid 
the  foundation  of  the  future  capital  of  Montana,  —  Helena. 
The  discoveries  of  mineral  wealth  which  followed  were  the 
beginnings   of   Montana's   prosperity,   and   one   immediate 
effect  was  a  vast  increase  in  steamboat  traffic.     "  Prior  to 
1864,"  says  Chittenden,  "there  had  been  only  six  steam- 
boat arrivals  at  Fort  Benton.    In  1866  and  1867  there  were 


214  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

a  whole,  one  may  well  agree  with  Chittenden 
that  no  river  on  the  continent  has  an  equal 
record.  As  for  the  Mississippi  alone,  the  great 
central  river  or  trunk  line,  whose  tributaries 
drain  both  the  Alleghenies  and  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  its  commanding  position  in  polit- 
ical as  well  as  economic  history  is  only  imper- 
fectly illustrated  in  Madison's  comment  in 

seventy.  The  trade  touched  highwater  mark  in  1867  and 
at  this  time  presented  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  devel- 
opments known  to  the  history  of  commerce.  There  were 
times  when  thirty  or  forty  steamboats  were  on  the  river 
between  Fort  Benton  and  the  mouth  of  the  Yellowstone." 

But  just  as  the  steamboat  succeeded  the  pirogues,  or 
"log  dugouts,"  the  "bull  boats"  of  buffalo  hide,  the  mack- 
inaw  boats  built  of  planks,  and  the  keel  boats  worked  by 
oar  and  sail  which  formed  the  representative  craft  before 
steam,  so  the  coming  of  the  railroad  supplanted  the  steam- 
boat after  a  contest  which  lasted  from  about  1859,  when 
the  railroad  reached  St.  Joseph.  Missouri,  to  about  1887. 

To-day  there  are  probably  more  steamboats  on  the 
Yukon  River  in  Alaska  than  are  to  be  found  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi above  St.  Louis,  and  several  times  the  number  of 
the  Missouri  River  boats,  since  the  Missouri  is  nearly  aban- 
doned. One  minor  practical  outcome  of  American  expan- 
sion and  development  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  many  of  the 
pilots  and  other  steamboat  men  trained  on  these  rivers  have 
been  taken  to  the  Yukon,  where,  it  is  said,  their  skill  is 
making  serious  accidents  a  thing  of  the  past. 


ROUTES  OF  EXPLORATION          215 

1802,  that  "  The  Mississippi  is  everything  to 
the  Western  people :  the  Hudson,  the  Dela- 
ware, the  Potomac,  and  all  the  navigable 
streams  of  the  United  States  formed  into  one 
stream."  The  great  steamboat  traffic  of  the 
Mississippi  and  its  tributaries,  which  employed 
four  thousand  boats  in  1850,  forms  a  history 
distinctive  in  its  methods,  its  economics,  and 
its  picturesqueness.1 

Even  before  the  great  water  ways  first  knew 
the  canoe  of  the  explorer,  a  Spaniard  had  made 
a  wonderful  land  journey  which  traversed  in 
part  a  route  famous  nearly  three  centuries 
later  as  the  highway  of  traders,  soldiers,  and 
emigrants.  The  first  association  of  the  Santa 
Fe  trail  with  white  men  goes  back  to  the 
journey  of  Coronado,  but  it  was  not  until  the 
early  nineteenth  century  that  the  path  from 
Independence  on  the  Missouri  to  Santa  Fe, 

1  Mark  Twain's  "  Life  on  the  Mississippi "  and  his 
"Roughing  It"  have  a  distinct  historical  value  as  pictures 
of  the  past  life  of  the  water  ways  and  the  interior  of  the 
West.  The  last  stage  of  the  contest  between  the  steam- 
boat and  the  railroad  below  St.  Louis  has  been  dramatized, 
as  it  were,  in  Mr.  G.  W.  Ogden's  novel,  "Tennessee  Todd." 


216  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

New  Mexico.,  became  a  trading  route.1  Origi- 
nally the  way  was  west  by  Council  Grove  and 
along  the  Arkansas  to  Bent's  Fort,  which  was 
east  of  La  Junta,  and  thence  south,  by  the 
Raton  Pass,  to  Santa  Fe.  Later  the  river 
was  left  at  Cimarron  Crossing,  near  Dodge 
City,  and  the  route  traversed  the  desert  in 
a  nearly  direct  southwesterly  line.  In  the 
country  of  the  Missouri-Mississippi  there 
were  manufactured  goods.  In  the  Spanish 
Southwest  there  wras  a  waiting  and  eager 
market.2  Thus,  before  the  close  of  the  first 

1  For  a  time  Blue  Mills,  Missouri,  was  a  starting  point. 
The  year  1817  brought  the  first  stage  of  steamboat  naviga- 
tion of  the  Mississippi,  and  two  years  later  the  first  steamboat 
reached  the  Missouri.     The  appearance  of  the  steamboat 
brought  more  traffic  for  the  trail.     Later,  Independence  \vas 
found  a  more  convenient  point  of  departure. 

2  The  first  trading  expedition  from  the  upper  Mississippi 
country  to  Santa  Fe  was  about  1700.  according  to  Captain 
Amos  Stoddard's  '•  Sketches  of  Louisiana,"  and  resulted  in 
the  imprisonment  of  the  would-be  traders  and  confiscation 
of  their  goods.      Under  Spanish  rule  there  was  some  inter- 
course but  no  trade  of  consequence,  and  the  second  trading 
expedition  is  noted  by  Chittenden  as  that  of  William  Mor- 
rison of  Kaskaskia,  Illinois,   afterwards   a  partner   of  the 
famous  Spanish  fur  trader,  Manuel  Lisa.     This  was  in  1807. 


KOUTES   OF  EXPLORATION  217 

quarter  of  the  century,  there  began  that 
"  commerce  of  the  prairie  "  which  made  the 
Santa  Fe  trail,  down  to  the  coming  of  the 
railroad,  the  greatest  land  trading  route  of 
the  West.  Traversing  as  the  trail  did  the 
haunts  of  the  fiercest  Indians  of  the  plains, 

Pike's  journey,  and  his  involuntary  journey  to  Santa  F6, 
formed  the  first  visit  of  an  officer  of  our  government.  Just 
before  Pike  the  Spaniards  had  sent  an  armed  force  to  the 
Pawnee  villages  at  Kansas  to  enlist  the  interest  of  the 
Indians  against  the  Americans.  There  were  various  minor 
expeditions  over  the  trail  in  the  first  twenty  years  of  the 
century,  including  the  journeys  of  A.  P.  Chouteau  and 
Julius  de  Munn  in  1815-1817;  but  William  Becknell  of 
Missouri,  "  the  father  of  the  Santa  Fe  trail,"  is  credited  by 
Chittenden  with  the  founding  of  this  route  commercially. 
Inman  gives  the  date  of  his  first  expedition  as  1812,  but 
this  should  probably  be  later.  The  earlier  traders  had 
caravans  of  horses  and  mules.  Wheeled  vehicles  were  intro- 
duced probably  about  1825,  and  Becknell  was  the  first  to 
take  wagons  over  the  trail.  In  that  day  cheap  domestic 
cotton  cloths  could  be  sold  for  over  two  dollars  a  yard  in 
Santa  Fe.  The  possibilities  of  trade  with  Xew  Mexico 
were  seen  by  Senator  Thomas  Hart  Beaton  of  Missouri, 
"the  father  of  the  West,"  who  introduced  a  bill  in  1824, 
which  became  a  law,  for  the  survey  of  a  route  from  the 
Missouri  to  Xew  Mexico.  But  the  survey  was  imperfectly 
carried  out  and  the  traders  followed  the  old  wagon  route, 
portions  of  which  are  now  followed  by  the  main  line  of  the 
Atchison,  Topeka,  and  Santa  F6  Railroad. 


218  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

commerce  was  forced  to  fight  its  way.  The 
Santa  Fe  trail  was  the  first  great  plains 
route  for  the  interchange  of  trade  between 
white  men.  Its  history  began  with  the  Span- 
iards. It  was  a  history  of  traffic  rather  than 
of  emigrant  travel,  but  a  history  second  to 
none  in  its  record  of  peril  and  adventure.1 

The  Oregon  as  well  as  the  Santa  Fe  trail 
had  its  real  beginning  at  Independence,  Mis- 
souri. From  St.  Louis  the  journey  was  by 
water.  The  overland  traffic,  when  the  river 
was  left  behind  for  the  journey  across  the 
plains,  led  to  the  foundation  of  Independence, 
Missouri, — which  preserves  its  identity, — and 
West-port,  afterwards  absorbed  into  Kansas 
City  which  was  laid  out  in  1838.  Forty-one 
miles  west  from  Independence  the  two  trails 
parted  company,  and  there  for  a  time  stood 
a  sign  announcing  the  great  journey  before 
the  traveler  in  the  simple  words,  "  Road 
to  Oregon."  To  the  northwest  the  "road" 

1  The  romance  and  adventure  of  this  picturesque  old  trail 
is  well  illustrated  in  Colonel  Henry  Trinian's  "  The  Old  Santa 
F6  Trail."  Unfortunately  the  author's  history  is  not  reliable. 


ROUTES  OF  EXPLORATION  219 

stretched  away  to  the  Columbia,  a  distance  of 
two  thousand  miles.1     The  Oregon  trail  was 

1  The  trail  crossed  the  Kansas  River  near  the  city 
of  Topeka,  reached  the  Platte  River  in  Nebraska,  and 
followed  up  the  Platte  along  the  south  and  then  the 
north  fork  to  Fort  Laramie,  which  was  a  station  much  in 
use  for  rest  and  repairs,  since  there  was  no  other  similar 
halting  place  until  Fort  B ridge r  was  reached,  three  hun- 
dred and  ninety-four  miles  beyond.  The  trail  continued 
along  the  North  Platte,  which  was  forded  near  Caspar, 
Wyoming,  but  was  left  behind  a  few  miles  farther  on,  since 
the  trail  continued  westward,  passing  a  famous  landmark 
near  the  valley  of  the  Sweetwater  which  was  named  Inde- 
pendence Rock,  probably  by  Ashley,  before  1830.  From 
the  Devil's  Gate,  a  remarkable  canon  through  which  the 
Sweetwater  flows,  the  trail  went  on  to  the  great  South 
Pass  in  Wyoming,  between  the  Wind  River  Mountains 
and  the  Sweetwater  Range.  The  first  discovery  of  this 
pass  was  due  not  to  Hunt  and  the  Astorians  of  1811-1813, 
but,  in  Chittenden's  opinion,  to  one  of  the  parties  of  the 
fur  trader  and  explorer,  Alexander  Henry,  in  1823.  At 
Fort  Bridger,  built  in  1843  by  the  famous  trapper,  explorer, 
and  guide,  James  Bridger,  who  discovered  Great  Salt  Lake, 
the  traveler  had  journeyed  over  a  thousand  miles.  The 
trail  kept  on  in  a  northwesterly  direction,  passing  Fort 
Hall  on  the  Snake  River,  and  Fort  Boise,  and  near  Pen- 
dleton  reaching  the  Umatilla  River,  which  was  followed  to 
the  Columbia,  eighteen  hundred  and  thirty-five  miles  from 
Independence.  Two  hundred  miles  down  the  Columbia  the 
end  of  the  trail  was  reached  at  Fort  Vancouver,  opposite 
the  mouth  of  the  Willamette. 


220  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

of  peculiar  consequence  from  its  relation  not 
only  to  trade  but  also  to  the  settlement  of 
the  country  beyond  the  mountains,  a  country 
which  could  not  have  been  settled  by  Ameri- 
cans without  the  control  of  land  routes  made 
possible  by  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana. 

Another  of  the  great  routes  which  was 
partly  identical  with  the  Oregon  trail  ran 
directly  westward, — the  Overland  trail,  as  it 
came  to  be  known,  from  St.  Joseph,  Missouri, 
and  also  from  Council  Bluffs  along  the  Platte 
to  Fort  Laramie  and  westward.  This  route 
left  the  Oregon  trail  near  Fort  Hall,  and 
crossed  the  desert  to  the  Truckee  Kiver  and 
California.1  This  was  the  main  route  of  the 
overland  gold  seekers  and  emigrants  in  '49 
and  subsequent  years.  To  the  south  there 

1  The  trail  turned  south  and  west  beyond  Fort  Bridger, 
and  the  usual  route  was  known  as  the  Salt  Lake  Trail, 
which  is  described  by  Colonel  Henry  Inman  in  his  pictur- 
esque though  not  infallible  volume,  "  The  Great  Salt  Lake 
Trail."  There  were  at  least  three  other  early  trails  of 
considerable  but  lesser  consequence.  The  exact  identifica- 
tion of  these  routes  is  difficult,  but  Chittenden'.s  itineraries 
are  recommended  for  consultation. 


ROUTES   OF  EXPLORATION  221 

was,  later  in  the  century,  a  mail  route  from 
Fort  Smith,  Arkansas,  southwest  through 
Texas  and  west  to  California. 

Three  great  land  routes  and  one  vast  water 
way  are  to  be  remembered  as  the  most  potent 
earlier  means  of  traversing  Louisiana,  devel- 
oping its  trade  and  reaching  the  country 
beyond  the  mountains.  On  the  maps  of 
to-day,  while  the  routes  are  identical  only  in 
part,  we  find  the  Santa  Fe  trail  succeeded  by 
the  Atchison,  Topeka,  and  Santa  Fe  Railroad, 
the  Oregon  trail  by  the  Oregon  Short  Line 
and  other  railroads,  and  the  Overland  trail  by 
the  Union  and  Central  Pacific. 

Greatest  of  all  industries  in  the  early  his- 
tory of  Louisiana  was  the  trade  in  furs, 
which  centered  in  St.  Louis.  It  was  a  traffic 
inherited  from  the  French,  who  were  far  more 
active  in  its  development  than  the  Spaniards, 
although  certain  of  the  latter,  like  Manuel  Lisa, 
were  traders  of  renown.  The  mineral  wealth 
of  the  mountains  lay  unrevealed  for  nearly 
half  a  century  after  American  occupation. 
Agriculture,  save  within  easy  distance  of  the 


222  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

lower  Missouri,  expanded  but  little  until  after 
the  Civil  War.  A  complete  history  of  upper 
Louisiana  to  1843,  when  emigration  to  the 
West  began,  would  be  in  larger  part  a  his- 
tory of  the  fur  trade.  In  1847  it  was  esti- 
mated that  the  annual  value  of  the  St.  Louis 
fur  trade  for  the  preceding  forty  years  had 
been  between  two  hundred  and  three  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  The  conduct  of  the  trade 
from  1806  to  1843  in  a  country  swarming 
with  hostile  Indians  is  estimated l  to  have 
cost  the  lives  of  three  hundred  traders  and 
the  destruction  of  property  valued  at  over 
two  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

The  management  of  the  business  was  not 

c_? 

a  question  of  individuals  or  firms,  but  of 
great  companies  and  of  combinations.  In 
the  north  there  had  been  early  exemplars. 
In  Canada  there  was  the  far-reaching  Hudson 
Bay  Company,  organized  in  1670  with  the 
picturesque  adventurer,  Pierre  Radisson,  as 
its  originator,  and  Prince  Rupert  at  its  head, 
and  there  was  also  its  sometime  rival,  the 

1  Chittenden. 


ROUTES   OF  EXPLOITATION  223 

Northwest  Fur  Company.  The  Mackinaw 
Company  had  the  trade  of  the  Great  Lakes. 
From  the  time  of  the  Louisiana  cession  to 
1845,  St.  Louis  was  the  headquarters  of  the 
fur  trade  of  the  far  West  and  the  home  of 
various  companies  with  longer  or  shorter 
careers  —  the  American,  Rocky  Mountain, 
Missouri,  and  companies  and  firms  whose 
rivalry  in  the  field,  like  the  hostility  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  and  Northwest  companies  in  the 
North,  added  some  dark  pages  to  the  frontier 
history  of  the  continent.  In  the  Northwest, 
John  Jacob  Astor,  seeing  the  possibilities  of 
the  fur  trade,  founded  Astoria  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia  in  1811 — an  unsuccessful 
experiment  —  and  began  an  effort  to  reorgan- 
ize and  combine  the  fur  trade. 

At  once  this  commercial  activity  quickened 
the  exploration  of  the  interior.  The  trappers 
sent  from  St.  Louis  ascended  the  Osage  and 
Kansas  rivers,  and  the  Platte,  or  went  south- 
ward along  the  Arkansas.  The  Missouri  be- 
came the  great  thoroughfare  for  the  traders 
and  trappers  passing  to  and  from  the  streams 


224  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

issuing  from  the  distant  mountains.  The 
bourgeois  or  manager,  the  clerk,  the  hunter 
and  trapper,  camp-keeper,  voyageur  or  boat- 
man, the  novices  or  "  pork  eaters,"  and  the 
artisans  represented  the  various  grades  en- 
rolled on  the  books  of  the  old  fur  companies. 
They  were  the  regular  army  of  the  wilderness 
traffic,  and  in  addition  there  were  the  soldiers 
of  fortune,  or  free  trappers,  who  scorned 
allegiance  to  any  standard  save  their  own. 
"  Gamesters  of  the  Wilderness  "  *  were  these 
adventurers,  staking  their  lives  against  Indians 
or  rivals  as  freely  as  they  staked  their  earn- 
ings when  they  returned  to  St.  Louis  after 
months  or  perhaps  years  of  savage  isolation. 
They  were  not  without  reproach,  but  of  fear 
they  knew  nothing.  Theirs  was  the  work  of 
pioneers  and  pathfinders,  not  in  the  cause  of 
settlement  and  possession,  but  for  the  sake 
of  the  commerce  afforded  by  the  wild  things 
of  the  streams  and  forests.  There  were  the 
buffalo  hunters  also,  slaughtering  for  hides 

1  An   apt  title   given  by  Miss  A.  C.  Laut  in  her  vivid 
narrative,  "  The  Story  of  the  Trapper." 


EOUTES  OF  EXPLORATION          225 

alone,  and  at  their  door  is  to  be  laid  the 
larger  responsibility  for  the  massacres  which 
have  swept  the  buft'alo  from  the  plains  in  a 
generation.  But  these  butchers  were  a  race 
apart  from  the  earlier  trappers.  The  history 
of  the  American  fur  trade  holds  names  like 
those  of  Chouteau,  Lisa,  Ashley,  Sublette, 
Vanderburgh,  and  Bridger,  which  are  of  large 
significance  in  the  early  history  of  the  West. 
Nor  is  theirs  simply  a  saga  of  brave  deeds,  of 
wild  adventure  and  wilder  license,  since  the 
part  wThich  they  played  in  the  exploration 
of  the  West  was  of  immediate  and  lasting 
consequence. 


CHAPTER   XXII 
TYPICAL    PATHFINDERS 

Trade  seeking  the  Northwest.  Hunt  and  the  "overland 
Astorians."  Ashley  and  Wyeth.  Bonneville's  journeys. 
Explorations  by  Fre'inout. 

Of  the  many  adventurous  journeys  to  the 
vague  western  boundaries  of  Louisiana  and 
beyond,  the  most  remarkable  for  the  first 
decade  of  the  American  fur  trade  was  the 
expedition  of  Wilson  Price  Hunt,  leader  of 
the  '"overland  Astorians."  This  expedition 
was  due  to  the  commercial  enterprise  of  John 
Jacob  Astor.  The  journey  of  Lewis  and  Clark 
had  shown  that  the  upper  Missouri  and  the 
country  beyond  the  mountains  was  rich  in 
furs.  Mr.  Astor  saw  a  tempting  opportunity 
for  trading  posts  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia  to  its  source  and  along  the  Missouri, 
an  opportunity  which  offered  not  only  trade 


TYPICAL  PATHFINDERS  227 

with  our  East  but  a  most  profitable  commerce 
with  China  and  Japan.  In  a  word,  this  Ger- 
man "  captain  of  industry  "  saw  a  practicable 
northwest  passage,  —  a  possible  means  of 
reaching  that  rich  Oriental  trade  which  had 
tempted  the  voyages  of  Columbus  and  of  later 
seekers  for  a  route  to  the  Spice  Islands  and 
Cathay. 

In  1808  Mr.  Astor  organized  the  American 
Fur  Company,  and  later  the  Pacific  Fur  Com- 
pany, the  latter  merely  a  name  for  the  branch 
of  the  first  company  which  was  to  operate 
on  the  Pacific  coast.  Two  expeditions  were 
planned,  one  to  go  by  sea  and  one  by  land. 
The  ship  carrying  the  former  left  New  York 
in  1810,  reaching  the  mouth  of  the  Colum- 
bia the  following  spring.  The  foundation  of 
Astoria1  was  accomplished  under  unfortunate 
auspices,  and  the  result  was  a  failure  that  need 
not  be  dwelt  upon,  since  our  present  concern 

1  Washington  Irving's  classic  "Astoria  "  needs  no  recom- 
mendation. Chittenden,  "  History  of  the  American  Fur 
Trade,"  Vol.  I,  chap,  xiv,  furnishes  some  judicial  com- 
ments upon  Irvine's  accuracy  and  answers  the  criticisms 
of  II.  H.  Bancroft. 


228  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

lies  with  Hunt's  overland  journey,  which  may 
be  said  to  have  opened  the  Oregon  trail. 

In  March,  1811,  Hunt  left  St.  Louis  with 
his  party  and  ascended  the  Missouri.  His 
original  purpose  was  to  continue  up  the  Mis- 
souri and  the  Yellowstone.  But  tidings  of 
hostile  Blackfeet  on  the  route  induced  him  to 
leave  the  river  at  the  country  of  the  Arikaras, 
thirteen  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles  above 
the  inouth  of  the  Missouri,  and  to  make  the 
journey  by  land.  His  party,  sixty-four  in  num- 
ber, turned  westward  into  an  unknown  country. 
They  passed  near  the  Black  Hills,  and  made 
their  way  through  the  Big  Horn  and  Wind 
River  mountains  to  the  valley  of  Green  River. 
Thence  they  crossed  the  divide  to  the  Snake 
River,  and  after  many  bitter  experiences  in 
the  mountain  winter  they  reached  the  Colum- 
bia late  in  January,  1812,  and  on  February  15 
arrived  at  Astoria. 

This  journey  occupied  three  hundred  and 
forty  days,  and  the  distance  according  to 
Hunt's  estimate  was  thirty-five  hundred  miles. 
That  summer  there  was  sent  back  from  Astoria 


TYPICAL  PATHFINDERS  229 

a  party  which,  owing  to  various  blunders, 
spent  nearly  as  long  a  time  on  its  return 
journey,  so  that  it  was  nearly  two  years  before 
news  of  Hunt  reached  St.  Louis.  These  two 
expeditions  showed  the  way  to  Oregon.  But 
various  mistakes  in  management,  the  war 
with  Great  Britain,  and  the  approach  of  an 
English  war  vessel  resulted  in  the  abandonment 
of  Astoria  and  the  end  of  Mr.  Astor's  dream  of 
a  northwest  trading  route  to  the  Orient.1 

The  character  of  the  men  who  were  the 
first  to  learn  the  secrets  of  the  Louisiana  wil- 
derness is  illustrated  in  the  experiences  of 
General  William  H.  Ashley.  A  Virginian  by 
birth,  he  was  elected  lieutenant  governor  of 
Missouri  in  1820,  but  for  a  time  fortune  seemed 
to  forsake  him.  He  was  the  head  of  the  Rocky 
Mountain  Fur  Company,  but  in  his  first  expe- 
dition he  lost  a  keel  boat  and  cargo  of  furs 
valued  at  ten  thousand  dollars.  In  1823  his 
men  were  overwhelmed  by  hostile  Arikaras, 

1  Perhaps  Mr.  J.  J.  Hill,  the  father  of  the  Great  Northern 
Railroad,  has  come  nearer  the  realization  of  the  dream  than 
any  of  Mr.  Astor's  successors. 


230  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

and  in  1824  he  was  defeated  for  governor  of 
Missouri.  But  in  the  end  the  indomitable 
will  which  conquered  the  West  for  Americans 
brought  him  substantial  results  as  explorer 
and  trader.  He  planned  and  led  expeditions 
into  the  interior.  Once  he  journeyed  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Yellowstone,  and  again  to  the 
country  of  the  Arikaras.  In  1824  he  led  his 
men  to  the  Green  River  valley,  in  1825  to 
Great  Salt  Lake,  and  the  following;  year  he 

O      */ 

made  his  way  again  to  the  mountains.  His 
adventurous  career  and  romantic  journeys  have 
invested  his  name  with  a  peculiar  distinction 
in  the  early  history  of  Missouri. 

Among  the  premature  prophets  of  the  great- 
ness of  the  West  was  one  Hall  J.  Kelley,  a 
Boston  school  teacher,  who  began  to  preach 
the  rich  opportunities  of  Oregon  as  early  as 
1815.  Through  his  influence  Nathaniel  J. 
Wyeth  of  Cambridge  learned  the  fascination 
of  the  vaguely  known  West,  and  presently 
there  came  to  him  an  idea  not  unlike  the  Astor 
plan  for  a  trading  company  on  the  Colum- 
bia. After  various  difficulties  he  organized  an 


TYPICAL   PATHFINDERS  231 

expedition  and  started  from  St.  Louis  in  1832, 
under  the  guidance  of  the  famous  fur  traders, 
the  Sublettes.  They  crossed  the  plains  to 
Pierre's  Hole,  now  Teton  Basin  in  Idaho,  and 
journeyed  on  to  Fort  Walla  Walla  in  Washing- 
ton, reaching  Fort  Vancouver  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia  on  October  29.  Wyeth  re- 
turned to  the  East  and  in  1834  led  a  second 
expedition  across  the  plains  and  mountains  to 
Oregon.  So  far  as  commercial  results  were 
concerned,  Wyeth's  efforts  met  with  failure. 
But  his  journeys,  remarkable  in  themselves, 
are  worth  citing  to  illustrate  not  only  the 
courage  and  the  spirit  of  adventure  which 
impelled  these  explorers  and  traders,  but  also 
because  Wyeth  attracted  public  attention  to 
the  overland  route  to  Oregon  and  aided  in  its 
early  occupation  by  Americans.1 

In  spite  of  their  careful  notes  on  fauna  and 
flora  and  meteorological  and  other  phenomena, 

1  Wyeth's  first  expedition  was  described  by  the  orni- 
thologist, J.  K.  Townsend,  who  accompanied  him  with  the 
botanist,  Thomas  Nuttall.  In  1898  Wyeth's  own  letters 
and  journals  were  published  by  the  Oregon  Historical 
Society,  edited  by  Professor  F.  G.  Young. 


232  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Lewis  and  Clark  were  not  professional  scien- 
tists, but  scientific  explorers  were  in  the  van- 
guard of  Western  discovery.  As  early  as 
1809-1811,  John  Bradbury,  an  English  natu- 
ralist, traveled  up  the  Mississippi  and  the  Mis- 
souri, frequently  risking  his  life  in  his  search 
for  specimens.  Bradbury,  Thomas  Nuttall, 
J.  K.  Townsend,  an  ornithologist,  and  H.  M. 
Brackenridge  were  with  Hunt  and  Lisa  before 
the  former  left  the  Missouri  for  his  overland 
journey,  and  they  published  the  results  of  their 
studies.  The  famous  painter  and  student  of 
Indians,  George  Catlin,  ascended  the  Missouri 
in  1832,  and  painted  many  portraits  of  Indians 
which  are  preserved  in  the  United  States 
National  Museum  at  Washington.  In  1833 
Maximilian,  Prince  of  Wied,  traveled  up  the 
Missouri  and  spent  a  winter  in  the  Northwest. 
His  book,  "Travels  in  the  Interior  of  North 
America,"  remains  the  most  elaborate  work 
published  upon  this  section  of  the  West. 
Another  scientific  explorer  was  J.  N.  Nicollet, 
whose  studies  in  the  far  West  between  1836 
and  1840  have  a  permanent  value. 


TYPICAL   PATHFINDERS  233 

The  explorations  of  Captain  Bonneville. 
U.S.A.,  from  1832  to  1835,  owe  much  to  the 
genius  of  Washington  Irving.  Bonneville  had 
obtained  leave  from  the  War  Department  to 
make  the  journey  at  his  own  expense,  in 
order  to  observe  the  country  and  the  people. 
He  himself  seems  to  have  thought  more  of 
the  possibilities  of  trade. 

He  ascended  the  Platte  to  Green  River,  fol- 
lowing the  usual  route  of  the  trappers,  and 
made  a  camp  on  Green  River,  west  of  South 
Pass,  but  his  trapping  was  a  failure.  He  sent 
out  an  expedition,  which  was  the  second  party 
of  American  trappers  to  cross  from  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Great  Salt  Lake  to  California. 
Bonneville  himself,  after  much  journeying  in 
the  mountains,  crossed  into  Oregon,  but  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company  controlled  the  trade. 
After  another  winter  in  the  mountains  he 
returned  in  the  summer  of  1835. 

Bonneville's  long  stay  in  the  mountains 
yielded  scanty  results.  He  made  a  map  of 
the  head  waters  of  the  Missouri,  Yellowstone, 
Snake,  and  other  rivers  and  the  country  around 


234  LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 

Great  Salt  Lake,  and  another  map  of  the 
country  westward  to  the  Pacific.  In  many  of 
their  features,  however,  Gallatin  had  antici- 
pated him.  Captain  Chittenden  credits  Bonne- 
ville  with  the  discovery  of  Humboldt  River 
and  lakes,  the  location  of  San  Joaquin  River, 
California,  and  the  mapping  out  of  the  country 
around  the  sources  of  the  Big  Horn  and  Green 
rivers.  He  was  the  first  to  take  wagons 
through  South  Pass  to  Green  River.  But, 
through  his  meeting  with  Washington  Irving, 
Bonneville  was  enabled  to  be  more  useful  to 
literature  than  to  science  or  commerce. 

Although  the  government  was  prompt  in 
organizing  the  first  exploration  of  the  Loui- 
siana territory  under  Lewis  and  Clark,  and 
another  under  Pike,  it  was  not  until  1842  that 
official  explorations  were  resumed.  Lieuten- 
ant J.  C.  Fremont,  U.S.A.,  who  had  already 
traveled  with  Nicollet  in  the  West,  was  com- 
missioned to  explore  the  mountains.  Most  of 
his  work  lay  to  the  westward  of  the  Louisiana 
Purchase,  but  it  is  inseparably  connected  witli 
it,  since  his  object  was  largely  to  find  the 


TYPICAL  PATHFINDERS  235 

best  routes  from  Louisiana  territory  west- 
ward through  the  mountains.  In  June,  1842, 
he  started  from  the  mouth  of  the  Kansas 
River  and  made  his  way  up  the  Platte,  through 
a  country  alive  with  hostile  Indians,  to  the 
South  Pass.  He  explored  the  Wind  River 
Mountains,  and  the  highest  bears  his  name. 

In  1843  he  led  a  second  expedition  to  the 
heart  of  the  mountains.  lie  found  the  head 
waters  of  the  Colorado,  reached  Salt  Lake, 
and  ascended  to  the  Columbia.  He  returned 
through  the  mountains  in  winter,  and  after 
many  hardships  led  his  exhausted  followers 
west  to  Slitter's  Fort  on  the  Sacramento  in 
California.  In  the  spring  he  returned  through 
the  mountains. 

In  1845-1846  he  made  another  journey 
through  the  midst  of  the  Rockies.  At  this 
time  there  was  trouble  with  the  Mexicans, 
who  held  California.  Congress,  on  May  13, 
1846,  had  declared  that  war  with  Mexico 
existed,  but  long  before  government  troops 
reached  California,  Fremont  led  the  settlers 
in  an  uprising  which  resulted  in  the  freedom 


236  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

of  northern  California.  Fremont  was  elected 
governor.  His  troubles  with  General  Kearny, 
who  commanded  the  American  troops,  his 
arrest,  and  his  enthusiastic  reception  on  his 
return  east  .form  no  part  of  this  history. 
Subsequently  he  led  two  more  expeditions, 
one  in  1848  along  the  upper  Rio  Grande  in 
a  finally  successful  effort  to  find  a  route  to 
California,  and  another  in  1853,  when  he 
crossed  the  continent,  finding  passes  through 
the  mountains  on  the  lines  of  latitude  38° 
and  39°. 

The  glamour  of  Fremont's  "  pathfinding," 
which  brought  him  the  first  Republican  nomi- 
nation for  the  presidency  in  1856,  has  not  sus- 
tained the  more  critical  examination  of  later 
years.  In  some  of  his  discoveries  Fremont 
had  been  anticipated,  but  the  knowledge  of 
passes  and  mountain  routes  which  he  in  a 
sense  popularized  has  proved  of  value  in 
many  different  ways.  Aside  from  this  and 
the  fact  that  lie  really  explored  much  new 
territory,  the  courage,  endurance,  and  on  the 
whole  the  good  management  shown  in  his 


TYPICAL  PATHFINDERS  237 

various    expeditions    are    sufficient    to    make 
them  memorable  in  Western  annals. 

After  Fremont  came  an  era  of  government 
explorations,  reconnaissances,  and  surveys 
which  established  routes,  indicated  the  lines 
of  future  railroads,  and  chose  the  sites  of  the 
forts  —  the  frontier  posts  of  order  and  of 
law.  The  West  was  becoming  better  known, 
but  before  Fremont  there  was  a  literature 
of  Western  exploration,  English  and  Amer- 
ican, which  may  be  roughly  described  as 
beginning  with  Jonathan  Carver's  u  Travels," 
published  in  1TT8.  This  curious  literature1 
was  rare  and  fragmentary  before  the  Biddle 

1  In  1823  John  D.  Hunter  published  in  Philadelphia  his 
"  Manners  and  Customs  of  Several  Indian  Tribes  located 
West  of  the  Mississippi."  The  author  was  a  captive  among 
the  Kickapoos,  and  claimed  to  have  crossed  the  continent 
with  some  Osage  Indians  and  to  have  seen  the  Pacific. 
Samuel  Parker's  "Journal  of  an  Exploring  Tour  across 
the  Rocky  Mountains  "  appeared  in  18:}8.  Wyeth's  Memoir 
was  included  in  Cushing's  Report  in  1  S:?n.  J.  K.  Townsend's 
"  Narrative  of  a  Journey  across  the  Rocky  Mountains  "  was 
published  in  18:]!).  Farnham's  well-known  "Travels  in 
the  Great  Western  Prairies,"  etc..  was  issued  in  184:5,  and 
was  followed  in  1840  by  (1.  F.  Ruxton's  "  Life  in  the  Far 
West."  The  early  memoirs  of  travelers  and  hunters,  the 
tales  of  Indians,  the  various  personal  narratives,  and  the 


238  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

edition  of  Lewis  and  Clark  and  the  meetings 
of  Bradbury  and  Brackenridge  upon  the  first 
stages  of  the  overland  Astorian  expedition, 
but  it  expanded  to  considerable  proportions 
later.  All  these  additions  to  knowledge  of  the 
West  stimulated  curiosity  in  the  older  states. 

recollections  of  Colonel  R.  B.  Marcy  and  other  army  officers 
afford  an  inviting  field  for  the  curious.  Among  the  num- 
ber may  be  cited  Jacob  Fowler's  "Journal,"  relating  this 
surveyor's  journey  to  the  sources  of  the  Rio  Grande  and 
his  varied  adventures  in  1821-1822  ;  Josiah  Gregg's  "  Com- 
merce of  the  Prairies,"  an  account  of  the  Santa  Fe"  trail, 
published  in  1844  ;  Charles  Larpenteur's  "  Forty  Years  a  Fur 
Trader"  (183:3-1872);  and  Father  Pierre  Jean  de  Smet's 
"Oregon  Missions"  (1847).  The  library  of  the  Wisconsin 
State  Historical  Society,  the  Mercantile  Library  in  St.  Louis, 
the  Lenox  Library  (now  a  branch  of  the  New  York  Public 
Library),  and  certain  private  libraries  like  those  of  Edward 
K.  Aver  of  Chicago,  H.  II.  Bancroft  of  San  Francisco,  and 
the  Hon.  Peter  Koch  of  Bozeman,  Montana,  are  rich  in 
examples  of  this  early  literature.  The  introduction  to 
"  Tales  of  an  Indian  Camp,"  published  in  London  in  1829, 
offers  this  quaint  passage  :  "  In  the  year  1695  a  number  of 
savants  associated  in  Paris  for  the  purpose  of  procuring 
information  regarding  the  Western  Indians.  They  were 
called  shortly  '  The  Theoretical  and  Speculative  Society  of 
Paris,'  but  their  title  at  large  was  '  The  Society  for  prose- 
cuting Researches  in  the  Western  Hemisphere  and  for  pro- 
curing Speculations  to  be  made  and  History  drawn  up  of 
the  Origin  and  History  of  the  Ancient  and  Present  Inhab- 
itants.' Madame  Maintcnon  became  a  member,  forbidding, 
however,  the  Society  to  speculate  upon  her  affairs." 


L  0  U  1  S  I  A  X  A 

PART  IV 
THE   IH"  I  LI) ING   OF   THE   WEST 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

• 

A   FORMATIVE   PERIOD 

Influences  of  the  westward  movement.  A  time  of  expansion. 
Development  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  Influences  upon 
upper  Louisiana.  Types  of  the  middle  period.  The  soldier's 
\vork  in  the  West.  Labors  of  missionaries.  Whitman's 
journey  and  its  real  purpose. 

In  the  era  of  exploration,  which  may  be 
roughly  defined  as  the  first  half  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, the  interior  commerce  of  upper  Louisiana 
was  represented  for  the  most  part  by  the  wares 
of  trappers  and  by  the  traders  of  the  Santa 
Fe  trail. 

But  the  history  of  the  West  was  unfolding 
rapidly.  In  the  lower  country  there  were  the 
increasing  settlement  and  business  interests 
of  the  state  of  Louisiana,1  admitted  in  1812, 

1  The  picturesque  history  of  Louisiana  may  l>c  gathered 
from  a  study  of  15.  F.  French's  '•  Historical  Collections  of 
Louisiana"  and  Gayarre's  "History  of  Louisiana."     More 
241 


242  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

of  the  Southern  territories  to  the  east  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  of  Arkansas,  which  became 
a  territory  in  1819.  East  of  the  great  river 
the  pressure  of  settlement  was  increased  by 
the  European  immigration  which  followed  the 
close  of  the  Napoleonic  wars.  There  were  for- 
eign as  well  as  domestic  reasons  for  the  fact 
that  the  population  of  Ohio  increased  from 
230,760  to  581,295  between  1810  and  1820, 
and  that  of  Indiana  from  24.520  to  197,198. 

By  1820  eight  states  had  been  formed  in 
the  Mississippi  valley  and  the  center  of  popu- 
lation had  moved  from  a  point  east  of  Balti- 
more in  1789  over  a  hundred  and  twenty  miles 
westward.  The  commerce  of  the  Ohio  and  the 
lower  Mississippi  was  quickened  not  only  by 
the  productiveness  of  new  settlers  but  also 
and  immeasurably  by  the  introduction  and 
rapid  expansion  of  steamboat  transportation. 

The  influence  of  the  steamboat  is  empha- 
sized in  the  history  of  St.  Louis.  In  1800, 
nearly  forty  years  after  its  foundation,  the 

popular  and  more  accessible  are  the  writings  of  G.  "W. 
Cable,  Miss  Grace  King,  and  the  references  in  McMaster. 


A  FORMATIVE  PERIOD  243 

population 'was  only  925.  Hardly  more  than 
a  thousand  residents  were  to  be  credited  to 
St.  Louis  in  the  year  of  the  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase. In  1810  it  was  a  village  of  only  1400 
souls.  But  in  1817  the  first  steamboat  reached 
St.  Louis  and  marked  the  opening  of  a  traffic 
imperial  in  its  range.  From  the  upper  navi- 
gable waters  of  the  Mississippi  and  Missouri, 
from  the  Ohio  and  the  Illinois,  and  from  New 
Orleans,  the  steamboat  brought  the  trade  of 
the  vast  region  bounded  by  the  Alleghenies  and 
Rocky  Mountains,  and  in  addition  the  com- 
merce of  the  eastern  seaboard  and  traffic  with 
foreign  countries  found  their  way  up  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  centered  in  St.  Louis.  With  such 
a  history  it  is  inevitable  that  the  possibility  of 
sending  the  modern  traffic  of  the  West  by 
water  to  the  sea,  and  reopening  the  once  vig- 
orous life  of  this  great  water  way,  should  be 
a  subject  of  perennial  interest.  A  century 
after  the  Louisiana  Purchase  finds  the  West 
concerned  with  the  possibilities  of  various 
canal  routes,  the  improvement  of  river  naviga- 
tion, and  the  possibilities  of  deep-sea  traffic 


244  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

direct  to  St.  Louis,  while  the  East,  so  far  as 
New  York  may  be  held  representative,  has 
been  debating  the  value  of  an  improved  Erie 
Canal  in  holding  the  commerce  of  the  West. 
History  repeats  itself,  but  there  is  no  repeti- 
tion of  the  argument  of  Eastern  Federalists 
that  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  was  a  waste 
of  money  upon  a  profitless  wilderness. 

On  the  North  and  East  in  the  early  years  of 
the  last  century  there  were  multiplying  factors 
of  growth.  The  War  of  1812  settled  finally 
the  ownership  of  the  whole  "Old  Northwest," 
comprising  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan, 
Wisconsin,  and  a  portion  of  Minnesota.  The 
swift  growth  of  this  great  section  swelled  the 
commerce  of  the  river,  although  the  comple- 
tion of  the  Erie  Canal  in  1825  gave  the 
Northwest  an  outlet  directly  east. 

In  the  South  the  introduction  of  the  cot- 
ton gin  stimulated  a  movement  of  Southern 
planters  toward  virgin  fields  farther  west. 
In  the  Southwest  there  developed  the  stormy 
early  history  of  Texas,  with  its  American 
invasion  and  possession,  and  its  admission  as 


A  FOEMATIVE  PEEIOD  245 

a  state  in  1845.  From  the  British  possessions 
to  the  Gulf  the  American  pressure  westward 
was  everywhere  in  evidence. 

The  movement  of  pioneer  settlers  across  the 
plains  to  Oregon,  whose  definition  and  posses- 
sion afforded  so  acute  an  issue  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain,1  began  in  the 
thirties.  In  1846  came  our  war  with  Mexico 
and  another  expansion  westward  which  in- 
cluded the  distant  Southwest  and  California, 
the  goal  of  treasure  seekers  during  the  years 
following  1848. 

Many  of  the  conditions  and  changes  sketched 
so  summarily  affected  the  old  Louisiana  ter- 
ritory only  indirectly  so  far  as  settlement  was 
concerned,  save  for  the  growth  of  the  states 
of  Louisiana  and  Missouri  and  of  Arkansas. 
The  interior  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  was 
occupied  more  slowly,  but  from  the  date  of 
acquisition  the  cities  of  New  Orleans  and 

1  Tlif  rival  claims  of  England  and  America  to  Oregon 
in  1845-1846  gave  rise  to  the  historic  watchword  "  Fifty- 
four  forty  or  fight,"  but  this  line  was  sensibly  abandoned 
in  favor  of  a  compromise  on  the  line  of  4!)°  —  a  continua- 
tion of  the  dividing  line  east  of  the  mountains. 


246  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

St.  Louis  showed  a  swiftly  increasing  com- 
mercial consequence.  The  tide  of  settlement 
overleapt  the  Missouri-Mississippi  and  showed 
itself  in  eastern  Kansas  in  the  thirties.  Of 
this  settlement  and  its  later  political  relations 
something  remains  to  be  said  in  another 
chapter.  The  purpose  of  this  rapid  summary 
is  merely  to  indicate  the  general  conditions 
surrounding  the  formative  period  of  the  old 
Louisiana  Purchase. 

Throughout  all  the  changing  scenes  of  our 
early  Western  history  one  figure  remains  con- 
stant—  the  American  regular  soldier,  whose 
close  relation  to  Louisiana  began  with  the  expe- 
dition of  Lewis  and  Clark.  From  that  time  to 
the  last  of  our  Indian  campaigns,  the  unfortu- 
nate trouble  with  the  Sioux  at  Wounded  Knee 
in  18(.)0,  the  soldier  has  done  heroic  work  in  the 
building  and  safeguarding  of  the  West.  He 
has  Avatched  over  wagon  trains  and  railroad 
builders,  protected  settlers,  and  faced  every 
form  of  danger,  under  the  burning  sun  of  Texas 
deserts  and  the  icy  skies  of  mountain  winters, 
for  the  preservation  of  order,  law,  and  life. 


A  FOEMATIVE  PEltlOD  247 

The  military  history  opened  by  Lewis  and 
Clark  was  continuous.  St.  Louis  was  an  early 
headquarters.  There  was  an  attempt  to  send 
troops  up  the  Missouri  in  1819.  Fort  Leav- 
enworth  was  made  a  military  post  in  1832, 
and  as  the  overland  travel  grew,  a  line  of 
forts  was  established  which  began  with  Fort 
Kearny  at  Grand  Island  on  the  Platte,  three 
hundred  miles  northwest  of  Fort  Leavenworth, 
and  was  continued  with  Fort  Laramie  in  Wyo- 
ming. Fort  Bridger  and  Fort  Hall  in  Idaho, 
—  the  latter  at  the  entrance  to  the  Oregon 
country,  —  and  other  forts.  Out  of  this  line 
of  posts  grew  the  system  of  old  forts,  each 
with  a  moving  history,  that  formerly  dotted 
the  entire  West. 

The  English  soldier  has  received  a  meed  of 
recognition  for  his  deeds  which  to  the  Ameri- 
can regular  is  practically  unknown.  From 
the  time  of  the  American  Revolution  a  repub- 
lic's jealousy  of  a  professional  soldiery  has 
inured  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  gallant  men 
who  have  had  so  large  a  part  in  the  westward 
advance  of  the  American  frontier.  What 


248  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

their  purely  military  part  has  been  in  this 
work  beyond  the  Missouri  can  be  inferred 
from  a  few  illustrations.  A  journey  of  a 
thousand  miles  from  his  base  of  supplies  into 
a  hostile  country  was  the  record  of  Colonel 
Kearny  of  the  First  Dragoons,  who  on  the 
breaking  out  of  the  war  with  Mexico  in  1846 
marched  from  Fort  Leavenworth  to  Santa  Fe 
with  seventeen  hundred  men  and  seized  the 
town.  "A  little  later  he  pushed  on  to  Cali- 
fornia with  three  hundred  wilderness-worn 
dragoons  in  shabby  and  patched  clothing  who 
had  long  been  on  a  short  allowance  of  food." 
After  him  Colonel  St.  George  Cooke  led  the 
half-starved  volunteers  of  the  Mormon  Bat- 
talion, who  after  infinite  hardships  opened  a 
wagon  road  to  California. 

The  Utah  expedition  of  1857  from  Fort 
Leavenworth  against  the  Mormons  proved 
fruitless,  but  the  splendid  endurance  of  starva- 
tion and  the  rigors  of  a  Rocky  Mountain  winter 
showed  the  mettle  of  the  American  soldier. 

The  Indian  wars  which  accompanied  and 
followed  the  building  of  the  Union  Pacific 


A  FORMATIVE  PERIOD  249 

and  the  slaughter  of  the  buffalo  furnished 
years  of  active  army  life.  ID.  18GG  Colonel 
Carrington  defied  the  Sioux  and  built,  in  the 
north  near  the  Big  Horn  Mountains,  a  new 
fort  —  Phil.  Kearny  —  an  outpost  of  civiliza- 
tion. His  march  and  the  building  of  the  fort 
were  accompanied  by  ceaseless  attacks  from 
the  Sioux.  The  fort  was  finished,  but  it  was 
assailed  again  and  again.  The  massacre  of 
Colonel  Fetterman,  Captain  Brown,  and  sixty- 
five  men  was  one  of  the  bloody  episodes. 
But  the  next  year  Captain  James  Powell  with 
some  thirty  men  repulsed  probably  three  thou- 
sand Indians,  who  then  learned  for  the  first 
time  the  murderous  effect  of  breech-loading 
rifles. 

In  1868  General  G.  A.  Forsyth  held  a  sand- 
bar on  the  Republican  River  in  Kansas  against 
perhaps  one  thousand  Indians  —  his  command 
numbering  originally  fifty  men.  It  was  not 
until  the  eighth  day  that  relief  came  to  the 
remnant  of  this  gallant  band.  Custer's  cam- 
paign against  Black  Kettle  in  the  bitter  win- 
ter of  1868,  Crook's  conquest  of  the  Apaches 


250  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

in  1871  and  1872,  the  Sioux  campaigns  of 
1876  and  the  Custer  massacre,  the  pursuit  of 
Chief  Joseph  and  the  Nez  Perces,  covering 
some  fourteen  hundred  miles  through  Idaho, 
Wyoming,  and  Montana  to  Dakota,  and  the 
Apache  campaigns  of  1881-1883,  are  only  a 
few  examples  of  the  active  service  of  the 
soldier  in  the  West.1 

Like  the  soldier,  the  missionary  was  an 
early  figure  in  the  history  of  the  West.  Fray 
Juan  de  Padilla,  who  yielded  his  life  on  the 
plains  of  Kansas  after  Coronado's  return,  was 
the  first  of  a  long  line  of  heroic  priests  and 
Protestant  missionaries  who  accompanied,  or 
followed  close  behind,  the  Western  pioneers. 
Their  first  field  within  the  Louisiana  Purchase 
lay  in  the  lower  country  and  along  the  eastern 
borders.  A  full  history  of  their  work,  which 
will  never  be  written,  woiild  afford  many 
inspiring  and  touching  pages. 

Among  the  Roman  Catholic  missionaries 
the  most  conspicuous  figure  is  Father  Pierre 

1  "  The  Story  of  the  Soldier,"  by  (Jeneral  G.  A.  Forsyth, 
furnishes  a  needed  picture  of  the  work  done  in  the  West. 


A   FORMATIVE  PERIOD  251 

Jean  de  Smet.  Between  1820  and  1830  he 
was  engaged  in  mission  work  in  lower  Lou- 
isiana. In  1838  he  went  northward  to  minis- 
ter to  the  Pottawattomie  Indians  near  Council 
Bluffs,  but  in  1840  he  was  sent  to  the  Flathead 
Indians  of  the  Northwest.  His  life  among 
them  and  his  frequent  journeys  up  and  down 
the  western  country  have  fortunately  been 
preserved  in  his  letters,  which  form  a  most 
valuable  record  of  his  period. 

The  early  thirties  witnessed  the  beginning 
of  the  Oregon  missions,  which  were  the  first 
Protestant  efforts  in  the  interior.  A  Metho- 
dist delegation  under  Jason  and  Daniel  Lee 
accompanied  Wyeth  as  far  as  Snake  River  in 
1834,  and  continued  on  alone  to  found  missions 
in  Oregon.  In  1835  Dr.  Marcus  Whitman  of 
Wheeler,  New  York,  and  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Parker  were  first  sent  out  by  the  American 
Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions. 
Missions  were  ultimately  established  at  Waii- 
latpu1  and  elsewhere.  In  the  winter  of  1843 
Dr.  Whitman  made  a  remarkable  journey  from 

1  Now  Walla  Walla,  Washington. 


252 


LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 


Waiilatpu  down  the  mountains  to  Taos,  New 
Mexico,  and  thence  to  St.  Louis  and  eastward. 
This  journey  has  been  the  subject  of  an  unfor- 
tunately bitter  discussion.  It  has  been  claimed 


WHITMAN'S  JOCHNKY  TO  SAVE  HIS  MISSION 

that  Whitman  made  this  journey  to  present  the 
case  of  Oregon  as  against  the  claims  of  Great 
Britain  in  the  dispute  over  the  northern 
boundary,  and  that  by  efforts  at  Washington 


A  FORMATIVE  PERIOD  253 

and  by  gathering  emigrants  he  saved  Oregon 
to  the  United  States.  The  whole  matter  has 
been  subjected  to  close  analysis  in  recent  years, 
and  it  may  be  accepted  that  Whitman's  journey 
east  was  primarily  for  the  purpose  of  preserv- 
ing his  mission,  which  the  Board  had  intended 
to  close,  and  that  he  exercised  no  political 
influence.  It  is  obvious,  of  course,  that  he 
desired  to  increase  American  immigration,  but 
his  practical  results  in  this  direction  were  lim- 
ited. Of  his  bravery  his  journey  gave  suffi- 
cient proof,  and  his  devotion  to  his  work  was 
sealed  by  his  death  at  the  hands  of  Indians 
in  1847.1 

In  view  of  the  adventurous  character  of 
"Whitman's  ride,"  it  is  not  strange  that  it 

i  The  legend  of  Whitman  as  "the  savior  of  Oregon" 
assumed  tangible  form  some  years  after  his  death,  and 
was  first  made  public  by  a  former  colleague  in  1804. 
The  popularity  of  the  legend  may  be  said  to  date  from 
1882-1883,  and  particularly  from  the  publication  of  "  Ore- 
gon :  The  Struggle  for  Possession,"  by  the  Rev.  William 
Barrows.  In  spite  of  H.  II.  Bancroft's  carefully  verified 
narrative  of  the  facts,  published  about  the  same  time,  the 
legend  obtained  acceptance  not  only  in  popular  literature 
but  also  in  school  histories  and  encyclopedias.  The  output 


254  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

became  invested  with  a  romantic  interest 
which  Whitman  himself  would  probably  have 
disclaimed  in  large  measure  could  he  have 
lived  to  see  some  of  the  later  literature  upon 
his  journey. 

of  books  and  periodical  literature  upon  the  subject  has 
developed  to  surprising  proportions  and  involves  a  contro- 
versy often  acrimonious.  Of  recent  years  O.  W.  Xixon, 
author  of  "  How  Marcus  Whitman  saved  Oregon,"  and 
Dr.  W.  A.  Mo  wry,  author  of  "  Marcus  Whitman,"  have 
been  among  the  leading  popular  exponents  of  the  legend. 
Fortunately  the  subject  attracted  the  attention  of  a  trained 
historical  student,  Professor  Edward  G.  Bourne  of  Yale, 
who  examined  the  sources  and  subjected  the  evidence  to  a 
critical  examination.  In  an  address  before  the  American 
Historical  Association  in  December,  1900,  he  demonstrated 
the  baselessness  of  the  claim  that  "Whitman  saved  Oregon." 
Another  student  of  the  subject.  Mr.  W.  I.  Marshall,  added 
some  instructive  testimony.  For  a  final  analysis  of  the 
subject  the  reader  may  consult  Professor  Bourne's  address, 
which  appears,  revised,  enlarged,  and  annotated,  in  his 
"  Essays  in  Historical  Criticism."  An  article  by  Mr.  Mar- 
shall in  the  School  Weekly  of  Chicago,  February  '2'2,  1901, 
cites  the  following  authors  of  school  histories  as  ex- 
pressing themselves  convinced  of  the  falsity  of  the  Whit- 
man legend  :  II.  E.  Scudder,  J.  B.  McMaster,  W.  F.  Gordy. 
A.  F.  Blaisdell,  and  Mrs.  A.  H.  Burton.  He  also  quotes 
Edward  Eggleston  and  John  Fiske  as  at  that  time  disavow- 
ing belief  in  the  legend,  which  Fiske  had  accepted  earlier 
from  Barrows. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
THE  COMING  .OF  IKDUSTKIES 

The  search  for  mineral  wealth.  Louisiana  ignored  for  Cali- 
fornia. Later  developments.  The  day  of  the  upony 
express."  The  great  cattle  industry.  Opening  of  the 
interior  by  the  first  transcontinental  railroad. 

The  treasure  seeking  of  the  Spaniards  in 
the  Southwest  and  various  quests  of  the 
French  belong  to  early  history,  but  it  was 
less  than  sixty  years  ago  that  Americans 
began  to  write  the  story  of  the  mine  in  the 
West.  A  few  pioneers  knew  something  of 
the  mineral  riches  of  the  West  —  trappers, 
scouts,  fur  hunters  like  Bridger,  Ashley,  or 
Peter  Ogden  famous  in  the  annals  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company,  or,  later,  William  Sub- 
lette,  Walker,  and  Kit  Carson.  These  men 
had  penetrated  the  mountains  and  knew  the 
Great  Basin.  Some  of  them  brought  back  tales 
of  placer  gold,  and  even  showed  specimens. 


256  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

But  it  was  not  until  1848  that  the  age  of 
gold  was  opened  to  Anglo-Saxons  in  the  West. 
The  digging  of  a  mill  race  for  J.  A.  Sutter 
at  New  Helvetia,  California,  brought  the  dis- 
covery of  gold  and  the  opening  of  one  of  the 
most  eventful  chapters  in  the  record  of  the 
world's  pursuit  of  mineral  wealth.  The  Argo- 
nauts who  crowded  vessels  bound  for  the 
Isthmus  or  the  Horn,  or  painfully  traversed 
the  well-worn  trails 1  from  Independence  or 
St.  Joseph,  made  a  history  of  their  own.  The 
number  of  men  in  the  California  gold  fields 
rose  from  a  handful  at  the  time  of  the  dis- 
covery to  six  thousand  at  the  end  of  1848, 
and  thirty-five  thousand  by  the  close  of  the 
following  year.  Not  until  1855  was  a  railroad 
opened  across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  but  in 
the  first  twelve  years  of  its  existence  it- carried 

1  •'  Along  this  line  [the  overland  trail]  the  •  prairie 
schooners '  stretched  for  miles.  ...  A  traveler  counted 
four  hundred  and  fifty-nine  wagons  in  ten  miles  along 
the  Platte.  .  .  .  The  cholera  epidemic  of  1S49  carried 
off  over  five  thousand  of  these  immigrants  gathered  along 
the  Missouri."  —  Sparks's  '-Expansion  of  the  American 
People." 


SUTTER'S  MILL 


THE   COMING   OF  INDUSTRIES        257 

eastward  gold  valued  at  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  million  dollars. 

For  this  wonderful  tide  of  overland  migra- 
tion the  old  Louisiana  territory  was  but  a 
country  to  be  traversed.  Yet  the  increased 
knowledge  of  the  West  had  its  influence, 
although  the  gold  seekers  neglected  treasures 
which  were  developed  later.  The  early  fifties 
brought  some  beginnings  of  placer  mining  in 
Nevada  and  Utah,  as  did  also  the  sudden 
and  disastrous  excitement  over  gold  at  Pike's 
Peak.  The  later  fifties  witnessed  the  dis- 
covery of  the  stupendous  Comstock  lode  in 
Nevada,  which  was  followed  within  a  few 
years  by  the  disclosure  of  mineral  riches 
hidden  within  the  confines  of  Louisiana.  In 
the  early  sixties  came  discoveries  of  gold 
in  Idaho  and  Montana,  and  later  copper  was 
added  to  swell  an  output  beside  which  the 
initial  cost  of  Louisiana  sinks  into  insignifi- 
cance, without  reckoning  the  products  of  Da- 
kota, the  zinc  and  coal  of  Missouri,  or  the 
other  mineral  resources  of  a  land  crossed  by 
the  Argonauts  with  eyes  open  only  to  the 


258 


LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 


gold  of  the  Pacific  coast.  The  first  placers 
of  Colorado  were  followed  by  the  long  list  of 
discoveries  which  have  given  such  names  as 


INDIANS  ATTACKING  THE  "  OVEKLAXD  MAIL" 

Leadville,  Cripple  Creek,  and  Creede  a  fairly 
historic  character. 

In  1803  a  month  and  a  half  was  required 
for  the  transit  of   letters  from   the   eastern 


THE   COMING  OF   INDUSTRIES        259 

seaboard  to  St.  Louis.  Half  a  century  later 
the  best  time  for  government  dispatches  from 
the  eastern  border  of  the  old  Louisiana  terri- 
tory to  California  was  three  weeks.  In  1859 
St.  Joseph,  Missouri,  was  the  most  western  rail- 
road point,  two  thousand  miles  from  California. 
There  were  only  wagon  trains  and  stages  over 
thirteen  hundred  miles  of  trail  to  the  moun- 
tains and  seven  hundred  miles  of  mountain 
roads.  The  plains  were  held  by  hostile  In- 
dians. For  those  who  shrank  from  the  pri- 
vations and  dangers  of  the  overland  trail  there 
was  left  a  choice  between  the  Isthmus  route 
and  passage  around  Cape  Horn.  The  need  of 
quicker  communication  with  California,  which 
had  been  felt  since  the  migration  of  gold 
seekers  began,  was  made  more  imperative  by 
political  conditions.  Out  of  this  need  grew 
the  "  pony  express."  1 

1  "  Of  all  the  expresses,  the  most  romantic  and  pictur- 
esque was  the  pony  express,  inaugurated  by  William  II. 
Russell  and  15.  F.  Ficklin  in  LSliO,  absorbed  later  by  Wells, 
Fargo  &  Co.,  and  abandoned  in  1S(J2,  when  the  telegraph 

line  was  completed  across  the  continent." The  Story  of 

the  Railroad,"  by  Cv  Warman. 


260 


LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 


At  the  outset,  as  at  the  outset  of  most  new 
departures,  the  idea  was  ridiculed.  It  was 
deemed  impossible  that  a  successful  mail  serv- 
ice could  be  maintained  by  relays  of  single 
riders  over  two  thousand  miles  of  practically 
hostile  country.  But  the  government  and 


A  "PoxY  EXPRESS"  EIDER 

business  men  assured  the  organizers  of  patron- 
age. Some  six  hundred  bronchos  were  pur- 
chased. A  corps  of  seventy-five  light-weight 
riders  was  enrolled,  and  relay  stations  were 
established  at  intervals  of  a  hundred  miles  on 
the  plains  and  forty  miles  in  the  mountains, 
each  station  equipped  with  a  few  men,  several 


THE  COMING  OF  INDUSTRIES        261 

horses,  and  a  generous  supply  of  arms  and 
ammunition. 

At  noon  of  April  3,  1860,  came  the  open- 
ing of  the  "  pony  express"  route,  which  was 
awaited  on  the  Pacific  coast  with  an  interest 
second  only  to  that  caused  by  the  driving  of 
the  spike  which  a  few  years  later  joined  the 
Union  and  Central  Pacific  railroads  at  Promon- 
tory Point,  Nevada.  The  pioneer  rider  started 
westward  from  St.  Joseph,  Missouri,  followed 
by  music  and  cheers,  carrying  a  message  from 
President  Buchanan  to  the  governor  of  Cali- 
fornia, with  bank  drafts,  letters,  and  papers. 
The  rider's  distance  was  a  hundred  miles, 
and  then  his  mail  bag  was  carried  on  by  his 
waiting  relief. 

So  the  mail  sped  on,  across  plains  and  alkali 
deserts,  through  canons  and  over  mountain 
passes,  through  the  lands  of  a  dozen  hostile 
tribes,  until  ten  days  later  the  last  rider 
reached  Sacramento  and  the  President's  mes- 
sage was  telegraphed  to  San  Francisco.  On 
April  3  also  a  rider  started  east  from  Sacra- 
mento with  the  first  express  pouch  for  the 


262  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

East,  which  went  through  to  St.  Joseph  in 
eleven  and  a  half  days.  This  was  the  begin- 
ning of  the  "pony  express."  1  Every  week  day 
riders  left  St.  Joseph  and  Sacramento.  The 
charge  for  letters  was  five  dollars  an  ounce, 
and  later  bonuses  were  paid  for  war  news. 
The  fastest  time  was  in  December,  I860,  when 
President  Buchanan's  message  reached  Sacra- 
mento in  eight  and  a  half  days  from  Wash- 
ington. The  news  of  the  attack  on  Fort 
Sumter  came  through  in  eight  days  and  four- 
teen hours  —  two  thousand  miles.  On  the 
western  part  of  the  route  five  riders  were 
killed  by  Indians,  two  were  frozen  to  death, 
and  several  were  shot  on  the  plains.  One 
man,  finding  the  Indians  had  killed  every  one 
at  the  relay  station,  rode  two  hundred  and 
eighty-four  miles  without  rest,  averaging  six- 
teen miles  an  hour.  Another  covered  two 
hundred  and  eighteen  miles  with  six  horses, 
one  of  which  carried  him  seventy  miles  at 

1  "  The  Great  Salt  Lake  Trail."  l>y  Colonel  Henry  Ininan, 
and  Mark  Twain's  "  Roughing  It,"  afford  some  picturesque 
sketches  of  the  "  pony  express." 


THE  COMING  OF  INDUSTRIES        263 

high  speed.  The  "  pony  express "  lived  a 
life  brief  but  crowded  with  thrilling  episodes. 
It  was  ended  in  1802,  when  the  first  telegraph 
line  was  built  across  the  plains. 

From  the  time  of  the  "  hunchbacked  cows  " 
of  Cabeza  de  Vaca  to  the  decade  following 
the  completion  of  the  first  transcontinental 
railroad,  every  traveler  through  the  plains 
of  Louisiana  territory  was  impressed  first  by 
their  extent,  and  next  by  the  vast  herds  of 
butfalo.  Then,  they  seemed  countless.  Now, 
the  census  of  the  handful  preserved  in  the 
Yellowstone  National  Park  and  in  private 
keeping  can  be  taken  all  too  readily.  They 
were  the  mainstay  of  the  flesh-eating  In- 
dians of  the  plains ;  but  the  slaughter  by  the 
Indians,  barbarous  as  it  was,  counted  as  noth- 
ing beside  that  of  the  white  hide-hunters  and 
other  merciless  slayers  —  sometimes  miscalled 
sportsmen.  The  completion  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  divided  the  buffalo  into  the 
northern  and  southern  herds,  and  ease  of 
transit  for  hunters  and  the  increasing  pres- 
sure of  newcomers  hastened  the  work  of 


264  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

extermination.  The  story  of  the  buffalo  forms 
a  page  melancholy  but  inevitable  in  the  history 
of  the  West. 

But  the  buffalo  had  their  successors.  The 
descendants  of  the  Spaniards  in  Mexico  owned 
cattle  by  the  tens  of  thousands.  Their  cattle 
entered  Texas,  —  sometimes  by  fair  means, 
sometimes  by  foul, — and  it  was  found  that  these 
sharp-horned,  thin-limbed,  muscular  creatures 
throve  on  the  buffalo  grass  of  northern  Texas. 
Seeing  this,  and  eager  for  a  market  which  did 
not  exist  in  the  distant  Southwest,  the  owners 
drove  the  cattle  northward.  Even  before  the 
Civil  War,  Texas  cattle  were  driven  to  Illinois. 
Soon  after  the  war,  experiments  were  made  in 
driving  cattle  to  Nevada,  and  even  California 
was  attempted.  But  the  great  route  finally 
clearly  marked  out  was  almost  directly  north. 
It  was  found  that  the  cattle  gained  weight 
in  northern  latitudes,  and  they  were  also 
brought  nearer  to  a  market.  The  opening 
of  the  first  transcontinental  road  was  an 
important  factor.  Thus  the  "Long  Trail" 
was  developed,  as  distinctive  in  its  way  as  the 


THE   COMING  OF  INDUSTRIES       265 

trails  worn  by  the  pioneers,  gold  seekers,  and 
emigrants.1  In  1871,  over  six  hundred  thou- 
sand cattle  were  driven  across  the  Red  River 
toward  the  north.  Out  of  all  this  grew  the 
era  of  the  cowboy  and  his  reign  from  Texas  to 
Montana.  The  cattle  towns  where  he  held  his 
court  when  free  from  the  labors  of  the  drive 
or  range  afforded  another  distinctive  page  in 
the  history  of  the  West.  But  at  length  there 
came  the  invasion  of  settlers  and  fanners,  the 
private  ownership  of  land  and  water  rights, 
and  the  opposition  of  barbed-wire  fences.  The 
"Long  Trail"  was  ended,  and  the  cowboy2  of 

1  "  The  braiding  of  a  hundred  minor  pathways,  the  Long 
Trail  lay  like  a  vast  rope  connecting  the  cattle  country  of 
the  South  -with  that  of  the  North.     Lying  loose  or  coiling, 
it  ran  for  more  than  two  thousand  miles.  ...     It  traversed 
in  a  fair  line  the  vast  land  of  Texas,  curled  over  the  Indian 
Nations,  over  Kansas,  Colorado,  Wyoming  and  Montana, 
and  bent  in  wide  overlapping  circles  as  far  west  as  Utah 
and  Nevada ;  as  far  east  as  Missouri,  Iowa  and  Illinois,  and 
as  far  north  as  the  British  possessions."  —  Emerson  Hough, 
in  "The  Story  of  the  Cowboy." 

2  "  There,  jaunty,  erect,  was  the  virile  figure  of  a  mounted 
man.     lie  stood  straight  in  the  stirrups  of  his  heavy  saddle, 
but  lightly  and  well  poised.     A  coil  of  rope  hung  at  his 
saddle  bow.    A  loose  belt  swung  a  revolver  low  down  upon 


266  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

the  days  of  wild  herding  has  nearly  passed 
away  or  is  transformed  into  the  milder  herds- 
man of  a  more  closely  regulated  industry. 

The  great  trails  of  the  West  were  worn  by 
the  feet  of  countless  thousands  for  decades  be- 
fore the  dream  of  a  transcontinental  railroad 
took  practical  shape.  But  the  idea1  found 

his  hip.  A  wide  hat  blew  up  and  back  a  bit  with  the  air 
of  his  traveling,  and  a  deep  kerchief  fluttered  at  his  neck. 
His  arm,  held  lax  and  high,  offered  support  to  the  slack 
reins  so  little  needed  in  his  riding.  The  small  and  sinewy 
steed  beneath  him  was  alert  and  vigorous  as  he.  It  was  a 
figure  vivid,  keen,  remarkable.  .  .  . 

"  The  story  of  the  West  is  a  story  of  the  time  of  heroes. 
Of  all  those  who  appear  large  upon  the  fading  page  of  that 
day,  none  may  claim  greater  stature  than  the  chief  figure 
of  the  cattle  range.  Cowboy,  cattle  man.  cow-puncher,  it 
matters  not  what  name  others  have  given  him,  he  has 
remained  —  himself.  From  the  half-tropic  to  the  half- 
arctic  country  he  has  ridden,  his  type,  his  costume,  his 
characteristics  practically  unchanged,  one  of  the  most  dom- 
inant and  self-sufficient  figures  in  the  history  of  the  land. 
lie  never  dreamed  he  was  a  hero,  therefore  perhaps  he  was 
one.  lie  would  scoff  at  monument  or  record,  therefore 
perhaps  he  deserves  them."  —  "  The  Story  of  the  Cowboy." 

1  Mr.  J.  P.  Davis,  in  ••  The  Union  Pacific  Railway," 
mentions  an  editorial  in  The  Ernie/rant,  a  paper  published 
in  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  as  the  first  public  expression  of 
the  idea.  But  this  was  not  until  lS-}'2.  Various  other 


THE  COMING  OF  INDUSTRIES       267 

vague  expression  as  early  as  1819,  when  Robert 
Mills,  in  his  book  on  the  internal  improvements 
of  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  South  Carolina, 
argued  for  the  connection  of  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  by  a  steam  road  "  from  the  head  navi- 
gable waters  of  the  noble  rivers  disemboguing 
into  each  ocean."  Mills's  plan,  however,  as 
shown  by  his  memorial  to  Congress  in  1845, 
was  for  a  road  for  steam  carriages  rather  than 
for  a  railway.1 

Of  all  the  early  advocates  of  a  transcon- 
tinental railway  the  most  enthusiastic  and 
persistent  was  Asa  Whitney,  a  New  York 
merchant,  whose  life  from  1840  to  1850,  and 
much  of  his  later  time,  was  spent  in  urging 
upon  Congress,  upon  capitalists,  and  the  pub- 
lic, the  necessity  for  surveys  and  the  bene- 
fits to  be  derived  from  a  railroad  across  the 
continent.  But  any  practical  result  from  the 

claims  are  recorded,  including  Senator  Thomas  IT.  Benton's 
declaration  at  St.  Louis  in  1814  that  men  full  grown  at 
the  time  would  live  to  see  Asiatic  commerce  crossing  the 
Rocky  Mountains  by  rail. 

1  Perhaps  the  reign  of  the  automobile  will  yet  show  Mills 
a  true  prophet,  though  far  in  advance  of  his  time. 


268  LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 

surveys  undertaken  in  the  fifties  was  delayed 
by  the  Civil  War  and  by  the  hesitation  of 
private  capitalists,  and  yet  the  war  itself  made 
plain  the  need  of  a  railroad  to  the  western 
coast.  It  was  not  until  1864,  after  the  govern- 
ment had  doubled  its  land  grant  and  increased 
its  inducements,  that  ground  was  broken  at 
Omaha  for  the  first  transcontinental  railroad. 
In  1869  the  Union  Pacific  advancing  from  the 
East  met  the  Central  Pacific  coining  from  the 
West,  and  the  last  spike  was  driven  at  Promon- 
tory Point  in  Utah,  completing  the  first  iron 
highway  across  the  continent. 

The  Union  Pacific  presented  some  typical 
features  which  have  never  been  surpassed.1 
In  the  abundance  of  Indians  and  buffalo  on 
the  plains,  and  of  the  thugs  and  thieves 
who  invested  Julesburg,  Cheyenne,  and  other 
points  with  an  evil  reputation,  the  building 

1  Some  features  of  this  life  are  sketched  in  "  The  Story 
of  the  Railroad."  «  The  Union  Pacific  Railroad/'  by  John 
P.  Davis,  and  Mr.  E.  V.  Smalley's  "  History  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad,"  are  useful  for  reference.  A  comparison 
of  a  map  of  the  old  trails  and  a  recent  map  of  the  numerous 
transcontinental  lines  tells  an  interesting  story. 


COMPLETION  OF  THE  FIKST  TRANSCONTINENTAL  RAILKOAD 
(Redrawn  from  a  photograph) 


THE  COMING   OF   INDUSTRIES        269 

of  the  Union  Pacific  held  a  certain  preemi- 
nence. With  this  road  began  the  work  of  the 
railroad  surveyor  and  engineer  in  the  true 
West,  with  its  perils  of  all  kinds  on  the  plains 
and  in  the  mountains,  which  forms  in  itself 
one  of  the  epics  of  Western  history.1 

1  Of  this  wonderful  work  of  construction,  Robert  Louis 
Stevenson,  in  '-Across  the  Plains,"  has  given  a  vivid  picture : 
"  When  I  think  how  the  railroad  has  been  pushed  through 
this  watered  wilderness  and  haunt  of  savage  tribes ;  how, 
at  each  stage  of  the  construction,  roaring,  impromptu  cities 
full  of  gold  and  lust  and  death  sprang  up  and  then  died 
away  again,  and  are  now  but  wayside  stations  in  the  desert ; 
how  in  these  uncouth  places  pigtailed  pirates  worked  side 
by  side  with  border  ruffians  and  broken  men  from  Europe, 
talking  together  in  a  mixed  dialect,  —  mostly  oaths,  —  gam- 
bling, drinking,  quarreling,  and  murdering  like  wolves  ;  how 
the  plumed  hereditary  lord  of  all  America  heard  in  this  last 
fastness  the  scream  of  the  '  Bad  Medicine  Wagon  '  chariot- 
ing his  foes;  and  then  when  1  go  on  to  remember  that  all 
this  epical  turmoil  was  conducted  by  gentlemen  in  frock 
coats,  and  with  a  view  to  nothing  more  extraordinary  than 
a  fortune  and  a  subsequent  visit  to  Paris,  it  seems  to  me,  I 
own,  as  if  this  railway  were  the  one  typical  achievement  of 
the  age  in  which  we  live;  as  if  it  brought  together  into  one 
plot  all  the  ends  of  the  world  and  all  the  degrees  of  social 
rank,  and  offered  the  busiest,  the  most  extended,  and  the 
most  varying  subject  for  an  enduring  literary  work.  If  it 
be  romance,  if  it  be  heroism  that  we  require,  what  was  Troy 
town  to  this  V  " 


CHAPTER   XXV 
PERMANENT   OCCUPATION 

The  Free  Soil  issue.  Kansas  and  Nebraska.  Distribution  of 
public  lands.  Louisiana  in  the  Civil  War.  A  glance  at 
later  development.  Political  and  economic  consequence 
of  the  old  Louisiana  Purchase. 

The  purchase  of  Louisiana  was  opposed  by 
the  New  England  Federalists.  Half  a  cen- 
tury later  their  descendants  were  laboring  to 
secure  a  result  which  would  mean  a  political 
alliance  with  upper  Louisiana.  In  the  long 
struggle  between  the  slaveholding  and  the  free 
states  the  part  of  the  Louisiana  territory  was 
one  of  supreme  consequence. 

By  the  act  known  as  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise, passed  in  1820,  Missouri  was  admitted 
into  the  Union  as  a  slave  state,  but  it  was  pro- 
vided that  there  was  to  be  no  slavery  in  any 
portion  of  the  Louisiana  territory  north  of  lati- 
tude 30°  30'  except  in  the  state  of  Missouri. 

270 


PERMANENT   OCCUPATION  271 

But  by  the  middle  of  the  century  the  westward 
movement  of  settlement  reopened  an  issue 
which  for  a  time  had  remained  comparatively 
quiescent.  In  1853,  under  the  administration 
of  President  Pierce,  it  became  clear  that  a  new 
territory  should  be  organized  west  of  Iowa 
and  Missouri,  which  would  be  within  the  Pur- 
chase. The  North  had  believed  the  question 
of  the  extension  of  slavery  into  the  Pur- 
chase settled  by  the  Missouri  Compromise. 
The  South  was  fresh  from  the  defeat  of  the 
"Wilinot  Proviso,"  a  bill  forbidding  slavery 
within  the  territory  acquired  from  Mexico, 
and  the  representatives  of  the  South  were 
stimulated  by  the  profits  of  slave  labor  on 
new  land.1  They  were  unwilling  to  see  slave 
labor  definitely  excluded,  but  it  was  a  senator 
from  Illinois,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  who  intro- 
duced a  bill  providing  for  the  admission  of 
two  territories,  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  and 

1  The  influence  of  the  cotton  gin  in  cheapening  produc- 
tion and  the  large  returns  from  cotton  raising  by  slave 
labor  were  obviously  important  political  factors  throughout 
this  long  struggle,  and  yet  in  the  long  run  slavery  was  more 
expensive  than  freedom  —  a  fact  generally  conceded  now. 


272  LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 

repealing  the  restriction  upon  slavery  con- 
tained in  the  Missouri  Compromise.  Douglas 
argued  that  the  Compromise  had  been  super- 
seded by  the  legislation  of  1850,  passed  prima- 
rily with  reference  to  the  territory  acquired 
from  Texas,  which  declared  a  policy  of  "  non- 
intervention  ";  that  is,  that  new  territories 
should  be  admitted  without  anv  regulation 

\J  O 

regarding  slavery.  In  other  words,  they  were 
to  decide  the  question  for  themselves  ;  and  this 
idea,  which  was  termed  "  popular  "  —  and  later 
''squatter" — :- sovereignty,"  was  embodied  in 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  of  May,  1854. 

Out  of  this  sprang  a  bitter  struggle  for  con- 
trol. It  was  a  question  on  either  side  of  the 
greater  number  of  settlers.  In  Massachusetts, 
where  men  were  not  content  with  protests, 
there  was  organized  an  Emigrant  Aid  Society, 
and  there  were  similar  leagues  in  other  north- 
ern states.  The  antislavery  men  strained 
every  nerve  to  send  settlers  of  their  own 
party  to  Kansas,  and  with  the  coming  of 
open  .strife  the  shipment  of  Bibles  and  rifles 
became  a  watchword  of  the  times.  Proslavery 


PERMANENT  OCCUPATION  273 

emigrants  were  sent  from  the  South,  and  the 
Southern  cause  was  aided  from  Missouri.  The 
first  election  in  1854  was  gained  by  the  pro- 
slavery  men.  There  followed  the  period  of 
anarchy  and  civil  war  which  made  the  name 
of  "  Bleeding  Kansas  "  known  throughout  the 
land.  But  by  18-58  the  free-state  men  were 
in  control,  although  Southern  influence  in 
Congress  made  it  impossible  for  a  time  to 
gain  admission  as  a  state  with  a  constitution 
forbidding  slavery.1  Nebraska,  lying  farther 
removed  from  the  slave  states,  and  rendered 
less  important  for  a  time  by  the  preoccu- 
pation of  settlers  with  the  territory  to  her 
east,  escaped  the  battle  for  free  soil  in  upper 
Louisiana  of  which  Kansas  bore  the  shock. 

This  was  but  one  of  a  series  of  events  which 
stimulated  the  occupation  of  upper  Louisiana. 
The  California  gold  seekers,  and  others  who 

1  It  is  unnecessary  to  give  references  to  the  voluminous 
literature  of  the  slavery  question  which  is  readily  accessi- 
ble. For  the  part  which  concerns  this  history,  however, 
the  reader  will  find  it,  useful  to  consult  ••  Kansas,"  by 
Leverett  W.  Spring,  a  volume  in  the  American  Common- 
wealth Series. 


274  LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 

rushed  to  Pike's  Peak  in  the  fifties  to  find  dis- 
aster instead  of  treasure,  had  passed  by  farming 
lands  which  were  to  enrich  future  owners  by 
producing  the  food  of  America  and  of  foreign 
lands.  With  convalescence  from  the  Califor- 
nia gold  fever  came  appreciation  of  the  farming 
lands  of  the  middle  West.  While  the  battle 
for  Kansas  was  in  progress,  a  tide  of  immigra- 
tion was  sweeping  into  Iowa,  which  was  pres- 
ently felt  in  Nebraska  and  in  Kansas  as  well. 
A  telegraph  line  was  built  at  Leavenworth  in 
1858,  and  two  years  more  brought  the  opening 
of  the  first  railroad  in  Kansas.  To  the  north 
the  development  of  Minnesota  brought  about 
her  admission  as  a  state  in  1858.  On  the  east- 
ward, at  least,  upper  Louisiana  was  developing 
its  definite  and  permanent  organization. 

The  vital  importance  of  control  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, which  the  history  of  the  Louisiana 
Purchase  illustrates  so  constantly,  was  shown 
again  in  the  Civil  War.  Of  the  states  formed 
within  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  Louisiana  and 
Arkansas  seceded  from  the  Union.  Missouri 
for  a  time  seemed  doubtful.  Her  decision 


PERMANENT  OCCUPATION  275 

influenced  large  issues  not  only  from  the  size 
of  the  state  and  its  position  on  the  border,  but 
also  from  Missouri's  control  of  the  Mississippi. 
Captain  Lyon's  seizure  of  Camp  Jackson  at  St. 
Louis  in  1861  represented  an  initiative  action 
against  secession  which  exerted  an  immediate 
effect.  This  was  the  first  step  in  a  struggle 
for  Missouri  which  resulted  in  securing  this 
strategical  vantage  point  for  the  Union.  It 
was  in  this  struggle  that  Fremont,  the  "  Path- 
finder," proved  himself  more  resolute  as  an 
explorer  than  as  a  soldier.  After  the  earlier 
border  warfare  in  Missouri  and  Kentucky  came 
the  great  campaigns  for  control  of  the  Missis- 
sippi and  its  tributaries,  including  Farragut's 
capture  of  New  Orleans  and  a  wonderful  chap- 
ter of  military  and  naval  operations  on  the 
Mississippi  and  its  tributaries.  All  this  culmi- 
nated in  the  surrender  of  Vicksburg  to  Grant 
on  July  4,  18G3,  an  event  which  ranks  with 
Gettysburg  as  a  turning  point  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  war.  The  ^  great  river  "  was 
returned  to  the  control  of  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment. The  Confederacy  was  divided  and 


276  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

its  left  flank  turned.  In  President  Lincoln's 
words,  "  the  Father  of  Waters  rolled  unvexed 
to  the  sea."  * 

If  the  Civil  War  checked  the  process  of  per- 
manent organization  for  a  time,  yet  its  close 
and  the  release  of  great  armies  of  men  to  peace- 
ful labors  quickened  immeasurably  the  devel- 
opment of  the  West.  North  and  South  met 
within  the  confines  of  upper  Louisiana.  Less 
picturesque  than  this  reunion  of  veterans  on  the 
prairies  but  of  large  practical  consequence  was 
the  increase  of  immigration  from  Europe  which 
followed  the  ending  of  the  war.  To  all  pos- 
sible settlers  there  were  held  out  the  tempting 
inducements  offered  by  readily  acquired  land. 

The  history  of  negotiations  with  the  origi- 
nal occupants  of  Louisiana,  the  Indians,2  and 

1  This  mere  suggestion  of  the  political  and  military  con- 
sequence of  the  Mississippi  in  the  Civil  War.  which  is  all  that 
is  possible  in  this  history,  may  very  well  turn  the  attention 
of  readers  to  -;  The  Mississippi  Valley  in  the  Civil  War."  by 
John  Fiske.     Snead'.s  '•  The  Fight  for  Missouri  "  is.  of  course, 
more  local  in  its  interest. 

2  One  view  of  our  treatment  of  the  Indians  is  presented 
in  Mrs.  Helen  Hunt  Jackson's  "  A  Century  of  Dishonor." 
A  comparatively  brief  study,  largely  from  an  ethnological 


PERMANENT   OCCUPATION  277 

their  subsequent  treatment,  is  too  often  a  his- 
tory of  mistakes  and  worse.  A  peculiarly 
difficult  question  was  presented  by  the  char- 
acter of  the  buffalo-hunting  Indians  of  the 
plains,  who  included  Comanches  and  Lipans 
in  Texas  and  Indian  Territory,  arid  Pawnees, 
Kiowas,  Cheyennes,  and  the  great  Sioux  tribe 
on  the  north.  There  were  the  Blackfeet  and 
Crows  west  of  the  Sioux,  and  in  Colorado 
were  the  Utes.  These  were  the  chief  tribes 
of  many  with  whom  the  government  made 
treaties  for  the  alienation  of  the  lands  which 
they  had  occupied,  and  for  their  retirement  to 
reservations,  in  order  that  the  wild  country 
might  be  opened  to  settlement. 

Whether  or  not  the  paternalism  of  the 
government  was  wise  in  its  disposition  of  the 
public  lands,  its  course  stimulated  the  devel- 
opment of  the  Louisiana  Purchase.  By  the 

point  of  view,  is  afforded  in  the  late  Major  J.  W.  Powell's 
discussion  of  the  subject  contained  in  "The  United  States 
of  America,"  edited  by  Professor  X.  S.  Shaler.  For  an 
understanding  of  the  Indian  on  the  personal  side,  there  is 
no  better  popular  work  than  "The  Story  of  the  Indian" 
by  Mr.  George  Bird  (Irinnell. 


278  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Preemption  Act  of  1841  any  genuine  settler 
could  take  up  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of 
public  land  and  make  his  payments,  on  long 
time  and  easy  terms,  at  a  rate  fixed  in  1862  at 
one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  an  acre.  The 
railroad  land-grant  system  had  its  origin  in 
1835.  The  transcontinental  roads  received  vast 
tracts  of  land  along  their  lines.  Over  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  million  acres  were  given  to  rail- 
roads between  1850  and  1870.  The  Union  and 
the  Central  Pacific  received  twenty-five  million 
acres,  the  Northern  Pacific  forty-seven  million, 
and  other  roads  obtained  large  amounts.  So 
far  as  the  government  is  concerned,  the  public 
domain  has  represented  a  loss ;  as  regards  the 
quickening  of  settlement  and  development 
and  actual  benefit  to  settlers,  this  disposition 
of  public  lands,  with  all  its  faults  and  flagrant 
abuses,  has  had  certain  practical  advantages.1 

1  Donaldson's  "Public  Domain"  may  be  consulted. 
There  is  a  considerable  literature  dealing  with  the  public 
lands,  which  has  been  increased  of  late  years  by  such  events 
as  the  opening  of  Oklahoma  and  Indian  Territory,  and  the 
increased  interest  in  national  parks  and  forest  preserves  in 
the  West. 


PERMANENT  OCCUPATION  279 

In  the  case  of  the  first  transcontinental  lines 
the  railroad  was  pushed  ahead  of  settlement. 
It  was  not  a  case  of  a  demand  for  a  railroad 
business  due  to  increasing  population,  but  an 
advance  across  long  stretches  of  unoccupied 
country.  Under  ordinary  circumstances  it 
would  have  been  wiser  to  advance  the  road 
step  by  step  with  the  advance  of  population 
and  of  business ;  but  in  the  case  of  the  Union 
Pacific  there  was  a  necessity  for  a  complete 
overland  route.  The  Atchison,  Topeka,  and 
Santa  Fe  aimed  at  the  mining  business  of 
Colorado,  and,  when  checked  at  the  Royal 
Gorge  after  an  actual  war  with  the  Denver 
and  Rio  Grande,  it  turned  southward  through 
New  Mexico,  seeking  a  slowly  realized  outlet 
to  the  Pacific.  The  Northern  Pacific,  after 
a  long  and  eventful  struggle,  was  pushed 
through  to  Oregon  in  1883,  although  at  its 
opening  it  ran  through  long  stretches  of 
unoccupied  country.  For  many  of  the  trans- 
continental roads,  granting  the  desirability  of 
building  them  when  they  were  built,  the 
paternalism  involved  in  land  grants  was  a 


280  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

necessity.  But  there  are  features  of  this 
railroad  building  and  of  the  government's 
distribution  of  the  public  domain  which  are 
creditable  to  neither  side.  All  that  can  be 
said  is,  that,  in  spite  of  dishonesty,  blundering, 
and  waste,  certain  practical  benefits  have  been 
realized  and  the  settlement  of  the  country  has 
been  accelerated.  The  part  which  the  steam- 
boat bore  in  opening  and  enriching  the  central 
valley  of  the  West  has  been  surpassed  by  the 
influence  of  the  railroad  in  the  development 
of  the  interior  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  —  a 
development  which  without  the  railroad  would 
have  been  impossible. 

As  to  the  later  and  comparatively  recent 
history  of  the  states  formed  within  the  Loui- 
siana Purchase,  the  statistics  provided  in  an 
appendix  speak  with  a  certain  eloquence  of 
their  own.  This  narrative  aims  only  to  pre- 
sent a  story  of  purchase  and  exploration,  and 
the  earlier  phases  of  a  domain  less  obviously 
a  unit  than  the  u  Old  Northwest"  but  pecul- 
iarly impressive  and  picturesque. 


PERMANENT  OCCUPATION  281 

The  history  of  Louisiana  is  crowded  with 
possibilities  fateful  for  the  United  States.  In 
the  struggle  over  the  treaty  of  1783,  in  which 
Spain  and  France  were  concerned  as  well  as 
England,  the  United  States  refused  to  be  con- 
fined to  the  eastern  seaboard  and  secured  an 
expansion  to  the  Mississippi.  Had  the  pro- 
posed restriction  been  enforced,  it  has  been 
argued  that  a  foreign  power  holding  the  whole 
middle  West  might  have  strengthened  itself 
and  alienated  the  American  pioneers  already 
beyond  the  Alleghenies,  and  have  established 
a  great  colonial  empire  like  that  cherished 
by  Talleyrand  in  his  dreams.  In  the  critical 
period  of  Louisiana  after  the  Revolution 
there  were  possibilities  of  war  with  Spain  and 
France  and  entanglements  with  England.  It 
is  profitless,  perhaps,  to  consider  past  possi- 
bilities, and  yet  their  consideration  helps  to 
measure  the  real  significance  of  history. 

The  purchase  closed  a  long  contest  for 
ascendency  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi. 
With  the  purchase  the  balance  of  power  in 
the  Western  Hemisphere  began  to  incline 


282  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

toward  the  United  States.  The  acquisitions  of 
Florida,  Texas,  California,  Porto  Rico  and  the 
Philippines,  and  presumably  Hawaii  as  well, 
are  termed  by  Professor  F.  J.  Turner  the  corol- 
laries of  the  Louisiana  Purchase.  "  The  Monroe 
Doctrine,"  to  quote  his  words,  "  would  not  have 
been  possible  except  for  the  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase. It  was  the  logical  outcome  of  that  acqui- 
sition. Having  taken  her  decisive  stride  across 
the  Mississippi,  the  United  States  enlarged  the 
horizon  of  her  views  and  marched  steadily  for- 
ward to  the  possession  of  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
From  this  event  dates  the  rise  of  the  United 
States  into  the  position  of  a  world  power."  a 

On  the  economic  side  the  acquisition  of  Lou- 
isiana meant  first  the  ownership  of  a  great 
system  of  water  ways,  whose  control  furnished 

1  Professor  Turner's  idea  has  an  eloquence  of  its  own, 
but  with  all  deference  to  one  whom  every  student  of  Ameri- 
can history  holds  in  high  respect,  it  might  be  argued  that 
there  is  a  distinction  between  contiguous  and  practically 
inseparable  Louisiana  and  the  distant  Philippines.  A  full 
recognition  of  the  United  States  as  a  w*orld  power  was 
apparently  not  brought  home  to  European  diplomats  until 
the  Spanish  war. 


PEKMANENT  OCCUPATION  283 

the  key  that  opened  the  interior  of  this  conti- 
nent. What  that  transportation  was  to  the 
pioneer  settlers  west  of  the  Alleghenies,  to 
the  fur  traders  of  the  interior,  to  the  mer- 
chants of  New  Orleans  and  St.  Louis,  and  to 
the  development  of  the  upper  country,  has  been 
suggested  in  the  course  of  this  narrative. 

The  mineral  resources  of  the  purchase,  ran- 
ging from  the  coal  and  iron  of  Missouri  to  the 
gold  of  Idaho,  are  indicated  by  statistics  given 
elsewhere.  It  was  the  irony  of  fate  that  the 
Spaniards,  whose  keen  scent  for  treasure  was 
so  richly  rewarded  in  Peru,  in  Mexico,  and 
even  within  our  own  borders,  should  have  left 
Colorado  practically  unexploited  and  Montana 
unexplored. 

An  even  more  important  part  which  Louisi- 
ana has  assumed  is  that  of  the  granary  of  the 
world.1  The  phrase  is  large  but  not  uncalled 

1  Kansas  leads  the  wheat-growing  states  with  an  acreage 
increased  in  forty  years  from  185,379  acres  to  5,355,038. 
The  production  amounted  to  8:2, 488,655  bushels  in  1900, 
while  the  second  state,  Minnesota,  raised  51,509,252.  In 
1901  Kansas  surpassed  her  own  record  with  a  yield  of 
99,079,30-1  bushels. 


284  LOUISIANA  PUECHASE 

for.  The  vaguely  described  "American  desert 
of  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  has 
shrunk  into  narrower  limits  year  by  year  with 
the  pressure  of  settlement.  The  tilling  of 
new  lands  has  been  accompanied  by  a  pal- 
pable increase  in  rainfall,  and  the  influence  of 
irrigation,  yet  in  an  imperfect  stage,  has  gained 
more  and  more  land  from  a  desert  which  is  no 
longer  feared.  The  present  consequence  of  the 
wheat  and  corn  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  can- 
not be  easily  exaggerated.  These  cereals  repre- 
sent a  question  not  only  of  food  but  of  finance. 
Their  success  or  failure  is  vital  to  great  rail- 
roads and  steamship  companies,  and  influences 
the  stock  markets  of  the  world.  In  other 
days  cotton  ruled  as  king,  but  the  scepter  has 
passed  to  the  grain  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase. 
Out  of  the  productiveness  of  the  Louisiana 
Purchase  has  grown  an  independence  of  mind 
as  of  estate.  The  lean  years  of  subservience 
to  Eastern  capital  have  passed.  The  crum- 
bling stock  markets  of  1903  found  the  West  at 
first  comparatively  unconcerned,  save  for  the 
effect  upon  the  market  for  wheat,  and  occupied 


PERMANENT  OCCUPATION  285 

with  its  crops,  its  irrigation  companies,  and 
its  development  of  local  industries  fostered  by 
the  money  of  its  own  people.  The  meeting 
of  the  Irrigation  Congress,  the  influence  of 
the  Interstate  Mississippi  Improvement  and 
Levee  Association,  the  ways  of  expending 
national  funds  in  the  irrigation  of  desert 
lands,  the  possibilities  of  shipping  southward 
by  the  Mississippi  instead  of  eastward,  and 
a  thousand  practical  domestic  subjects  have 
maintained  their  interest  in  spite  of  Eastern 
absorption  in  the  stock  market.  Years  of  bad 
crops  may  lie  in  the  future,  but  the  centennial 
year  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  has  brought 
the  development  of  an  independence  which 
can  never  wholly  disappear. 

Of  greater  consequence  than  richness  of 
production  is  the  effect  of  any  great  national 
undertaking  upon  the  character  of  a  people. 
In  the  acquisition  of  the  vast  plains,  great 
rivers,  and  lofty  mountains  of  Louisiana,  there 
lay  an  influence  more  subtle  than  that  of 
mere  space  and  si/e.  It  was  an  expansion  of 
our  country  which  meant  a  larger  character 


286  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

and  broader  outlook  for  its  men.  Whatever 
vagaries  may  have  harbored  temporarily  in 
Louisiana  in  the  past,  its  influence  has  sup- 
plied a  manhood  and  a  love  of  soil  and 
country  which  crown  the  long,  strange  his- 
tory woven  through  the  centuries  since  the 
first  coming  of  the  Spaniard. 


Treaty  of  Purchase  between  the  United  States  and  the 
French  Republic L 

The  President  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and 
the  First  Consul  of  the  French  liepublic,  in  the  name 
of  the  French  people,  desiring  to  remove  all  sources 
of  misunderstanding  relative  to  objects  of  discussion 
mentioned  in  the  second  and  fifth  articles  of  the  Con- 
vention of  (the  8th  Vendemiaire,  an  9,)  September  30, 
1800,  relative  to  the  rights  claimed  by  the  United 
States,  in  virtue  of  the  Treaty  concluded  at  Madrid, 
the  27th  October,  1795,  between  His  Catholic  Majesty 
and  the  said  United  States,  and  willing  to  strengthen 
the  union  and  friendship,  which  at  the  time  of  the  said 
Convention  was  happily  re-established  between  the 
two  nations,  have  respectively  named  their  Plenipo- 
tentiaries, to  wit  :  The  President  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Senate  of  the  said  States,  Eobert  E.  Livingston,  Min- 
ister Plenipotentiary  of  the  United  States,  and  James 
Monroe,  Minister  Plenipotentiary  and  Envoy  Extraor- 
dinary of  the  said  States,  near  the  Government  of 

1  This  treaty,  which  has  been  often  reprinted,  was  officially 
published  in  the  annals  of  Congress,  1802-1803,  pp.  1006-1008, 
which  give  an  official  current  history  of  the  negotiations. 

287 


288  LOUISIANA  PUECHASE 

the  French  Republic  ;  and  the  First  Consul,  in  the 
name  of  the  French  people,  the  French  citizen  Barbe 
Marbois,  Minister  of  the  Public  Treasury,  who,  after 
having  respectively  exchanged  their  full  powers,  have 
agreed  to  the  following  articles  : 

ART.  1.  Whereas,  by  the  article  the  third  of  the 
Treaty  concluded  at  St.  Ildefonso,  (the  9th  Vende- 
miaire,  an  9.)  October  1,  1800,  between  the  First 
Consul  of  the  French  Republic  and  His  Catholic 
Majesty,  it  was  agreed  as  follows  :  His  Catholic 
Majesty  promises  and  engages  on  his  part  to  cede  to 
the  French  Republic,  six  months  after  the  full  and 
entire  execution  of  the  conditions  and  stipulations 
herein,  relative  to  his  Royal  Highness  the  Duke  of 
Parma,  the  Colony  or  Province  of  Louisiana,  with  the 
same  extent  that  it  now  has  in  the  hands  of  Spain, 
and  that  it  had  when  France  possessed  it ;  and  such 
as  it  should  be  after  the  treaties  subsequently 
entered  into  between  Spain  and  other  States  :  And 
whereas,  in  pursuance  of  the  Treaty,  particularly  of 
the  third  article,  the  French  Republic  has  an  incon- 
testable title  to  the  domain  and  to  the  possession  of 
the  said  territory,  the  First  Consul  of  the  French  Re- 
public, desiring  to  give  to  the  United  States  a  strong 
proof  of  friendship,  doth  hereby  cede  to  the  said 
United  States,  in  the  name  of  the  French  Republic, 
for  ever  and  in  full  sovereignty,  the  said  territory, 
with  all  its  rights  and  appurtenances,  as  fully  and  in 
the  same  manner  as  they  might  have  been  acquired 
by  the  French  Republic,  in  value  of  the  above-men- 
tioned treaty,  concluded  with  His  Catholic  Majesty. 


APPENDIX  1  289 

ART.  2.  In  the  cession  made  by  the  preceding 
article,  are  included  the  adjacent  islands  belonging 
to  Louisiana,  all  public  lots  and  squares,  vacant  lands, 
and  all  public  buildings,  fortifications,  barracks,  and 
other  edifices,  which  are  not  private  property.  The 
archives,  papers,  and  documents,  relative  to  the  domain 
and  sovereignty  of  Louisiana  and  its  dependencies, 
will  be  left  in  the  possession  of  the  Commissaries  of 
the  United  States,  and  copies  will  be  afterwards 
given  in  due  form  to  the  magistrates  and  municipal 
officers,  of  such  of  the  said  papers  and  documents  as 
may  be  necessary  to  them. 

ART.  3.  The  inhabitants  of  the  ceded  territory 
shall  be  incorporated  in  the  Union  of  the  United 
States,  and  admitted  as  soon  as  possible,  according 
to  the  principles  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  to  the 
enjoyment  of  all  the  rights,  advantages,  and  immu- 
nities, of  citizens  of  the  United  States  ;  and,  in  the 
mean  time,  they  shall  be  maintained  and  protected 
in  the  free  enjoyment  of  their  liberty,  property,  and 
the  religion  which  they  profess. 

ART.  4.  There  shall  be  sent  by  the  Government  of 
France  a  Commissary  to  Louisiana,  to  the  end  that 
he  do  every  act  necessary,  as  well  to  receive  from 
the  officers  of  His  Catholic  Majesty  the  said  country 
and  its  dependencies  in  the  name  of  the  French 
Republic,  if  it  lias  not  been  already  done,  as  to 
transmit  it,  in  the  name  of  the  French  Eepublic,  to 
the  Commissary  or  agent  of  the  United  States. 

AKT.  5.  Immediately  after  the  ratification  of  the 
present  treaty  by  the  President  of  the  United  States, 


290  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

and  in  case  that  of  the  First  Consul  shall  have  been 
previously  obtained,  the  Commissary  of  the  French 
Republic  shall  remit  all  the  military  posts  of  New 
Orleans,  and  other  parts  of  the  ceded  territory,  to  the 
Commissary  or  Commissaries  named  by  the  President 
to  take  possession  ;  the  troops,  whether  of  France  or 
Spain,  who  may  be  there,  shall  cease  to  occupy  any 
military  post  from  the  time  of  taking  possession,  and 
shall  be  embarked  as  soon  as  possible  in  the  course  of 
three  months  after  the  ratification  of  this  treaty. 

ART.  6.  The  United  States  promise  to  execute 
such  treaties  and  articles  as  may  have  been  agreed 
between  Spain  and  the  tribes  and  nations  of  Indians, 
until,  by  mutual  consent  of  the  United  States  and 
the  said  tribes  or  nations,  other  suitable  articles  shall 
have  been  agreed  upon. 

ART.  7.  As  it  is  reciprocally  advantageous  to 
the  commerce  of  France  and  the  United  States,  to 
encourage  the  communication  of  both  nations,  for 
a  limited  time,  in  the  country  ceded  by  the  present 
treaty,  until  general  arrangements  relative  to  the 
commerce  of  both  nations  may  be  agreed  on,  it  has 
been  agreed  between  the  contracting  parties,  that  the 
French  ships  coming  directly  from  France  or  any  of 
her  Colonies,  loaded  only  with  the  produce  or  manu- 
factures of  France  or  her  said  Colonies,  and  the  ships 
of  Spain  coming  directly  from  Spain  or  any  of  her 
Colonies,  loaded  only  with  the  produce  or  manu- 
factures of  Spain  or  her  Colonies,  shall  be  admitted 
during  the  space  of  twelve  years  in  the  port  of  New 


APPENDIX  1  291 

Orleans,  and  in  all  other  legal  ports  of  entry  within 
the  ceded  territory,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  ships 
of  the  United  States  coming  directly  from  France  or 
Spain,  or  any  of  their  Colonies,  without  being  subject 
to  any  other  or  greater  duty  on  the  merchandise,  or 
other  or  greater  tonnage  than  those  paid  by  the  citi- 
zens of  the  United  States. 

During  the  space  of  time  above-mentioned,  no  other 
nation  shall  have  a  right  to  the  same  privileges  in 
the  ports  of  the  ceded  territory.  The  twelve  years 
shall  commence  three  months  after  the  exchange  of 
ratifications,  if  it  shall  take  place  in  France,  or  three 
months  after  it  shall  have  been  notified  at  Paris  to 
the  French  Government,  if  it  shall  take  place  in  the 
United  States  ;  it  is,  however,  well  understood,  that 
the  object  of  the  above  article  is  to  favor  the  manu- 
factures, commerce,  freight,  and  navigation  of  France 
and  Spain,  so  far  as  relates  to  the  importations  that 
the  French  and  Spanish  shall  make  into  the  said 
ports  of  the  United  States,  without  in  any  sort  affect- 
ing the  regulations  that  the  United  States  may  make 
concerning  the  exportation  of  the  produce  and  mer- 
chandise of  the  United  States,  or  any  right  they  may 
have  to  make  such  regulations. 

AKT.  8.  In  future  and  forever,  after  the  expiration 
of  the  twelve  years,  the  ships  of  France  shall  be 
treated  upon  the  footing  of  the  most  favored  nations 
in  the  ports  above-mentioned. 

AKT.  9.  The  particular  convention  signed  this  day 
by  the  respective  Ministers,  having  for  its  object  to 


292  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

provide  the  payment  of  debts  due  to  the  citizens  of 
the  United  States  by  the  French  Republic,  prior  to 
the  30th  of  September,  1800,  (8th  Vendemiaire,  an 
9,)  is  approved,  and  to  have  its  execution  in  the 
same  manner  as  if  it  had  been  inserted  in  the  present 
treaty ;  and  it  shall  be  ratified  in  the  same  form  and 
in  the  same  time,  so  that  the  one  shall  not  be  ratified 
distinct  from  the  other.  Another  particular  conven- 
tion, signed  at  the  same  date  as  the  present  treaty, 
relative  to  a  definitive  rule  between  the  contracting 
parties  is,  in  the  like  manner,  approved,  and  will  be 
ratified  in  the  same  form  and  in  the  same  time,  and 
jointly. 

ART.  10.  The  present  treaty  shall  be  ratified  in 
good  and  due  form,  and  the  ratification  shall  be 
exchanged  in  the  space  of  six  months  after  the  date 
of  the  signature  by  the  Ministers  Plenipotentiary,  or 
sooner  if  possible. 

In  faith  whereof,  the  respective  Plenipotentiaries 
have  signed  these  articles  in  the  French  and  English 
languages,  declaring,  nevertheless,  that  the  present 
treaty  was  originally  agreed  to  in  the  French  lan- 
guage, and  have  thereunto  put  their  seals. 

Done  at  Paris,  the  10th  day  of  Floreal,  in  the  llth 
year  of  the  French  Republic,  and  the  30th  April, 
1803. 

R.  R.  LIVINGSTON, 
JAMES  MONROE, 
BARBE  MARBOIS. 


APPENDIX  I  293 

A  Convention  between  the  United  States  of  America 
and  the  French  Republic 

The  President  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
and  the  First  Consul  of  the  French  Republic,  in  the 
name  of  the  French  people,  in  consequence  of  the 
Treaty  of  Cession  of  Louisiana,  which  has  been 
signed  this  day,  wishing  to  regulate  definitively 
everything  which  has  relation  to  the  said  cession, 
have  authorized,  to  this  effect,  the  Plenipotentiaries, 
that  is  to  say  :  the  President  of  the  United  States 
has,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate 
of  the  said  States,  nominated  for  their  Plenipoten- 
tiaries, Kobert  R.  Livingston,  Minister  Plenipotentiary 
of  the  United  States,  and  James  Monroe,  Minister 
Plenipotentiary  and  Envoy  Extraordinary  of  the  said 
United  States,  near  the  Government  of  the  French 
Republic  ;  and  the  First  Consul  of  the  French  Repub- 
lic, in  the  name  of  the  French  people,  has  named,  as 
Plenipotentiary  of  the  said  Republic,  the  French  citi- 
zen Barbe  Marbois,  who,  in  virtue  of  their  full  powers, 
which  have  been  exchanged  this  day,  have  agreed  to 
the  following  articles  : 

ART.  1.  The  Government  of  the  United  States 
engages  to  pay  to  the  French  Government,  in  the 
manner  specified  in  the  following  articles,  the  sum 
of  sixty  millions  of  francs,  independent  of  the  sum 
which  shall  be  fixed  by  any  other  convention  for  the 
payment  of  the  debts  due  by  France  to  citizens  of 
the  United  States. 


294  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

ART.  2.  For  the  payment  of  the  sum  of  sixty  mil- 
lions of  francs,  mentioned  in  the  preceding  article, 
the  United  States  shall  create  a  stock  of  eleven 
million  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars,  bear- 
ing an  interest  of  six  per  cent,  per  annum,  payable 
half-yearly,  in  London,  Amsterdam,  or  Paris,  amount- 
ing, by  the  half-year  to  three  hundred  and  thirty- 
seven  thousand  five  hundred  dollars,  according  to  the 
proportions  which  shall  be  determined  by  the  French 
Government,  to  be  paid  at  either  place  :  the  principal 
of  the  said  stock  to  be  reimbursed  at  the  Treasury 
of  the  United  States,  in  annual  payments  of  not  less 
than  three  millions  of  dollars  each  ;  of  which  the 
first  payment  shall  commence  fifteen  years  after  the 
date  of  the  exchange  of  ratifications  :  this  stock  shall 
be  transferred  to  the  Government  of  France,  or  to  such 
person  or  persons  as  shall  be  authorized  to  receive  it, 
in  three  months,  at  most,  after  the  exchange  of  the 
ratifications  of  this  treaty,  and  after  Louisiana  shall 
be  taken  possession  of  in  the  name  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States. 

It  is  further  agreed  that,  if  the  French  Govern- 
ment should  be  desirous  of  disposing  of  the  said 
stock,  to  receive  the  capital  in  Europe  at  shorter 
terms,  that  its  measures,  for  that  purpose,  shall  be 
taken  so  as  to  favor,  in  the  greatest  degree  possible, 
the  credit  of  the  United  States,  and  to  raise  to  the 
highest  price  the  said  stock. 

ART.  3.  It  is  agreed  that  the  dollar  of  the  United 
States,  specified  in  the  present  convention,  shall  be 


APPENDIX  I  295 

fixed  at  five  francs  3333-lOOOOths  or  five  livres  eight 
sous  tournoise. 

The  present  convention  shall  be  ratified  in  good 
and  true  form,  and  the  ratifications  shall  be  exchanged 
in  the  space  of  six  months,  to  date  from  this  day,  or 
sooner  if  possible. 

In  faith  of  which,  the  respective  Plenipotentiaries 
have  signed  the  above  articles,  both  in  the  French 
and  English  languages,  declaring,  nevertheless,  that 
the  present  treaty  has  been  originally  agreed  on  and 
written  in  the  French  language,  to  which  they  have 
hereunto  affixed  their  seals. 

Done  at  Paris,  the  tenth  day  of  Floreal,  eleventh 
year  of  the  French  Republic,  (30th  April,  1803.) 

ROBERT  R.  LIVINGSTON, 
JAMES  MONROE, 
BARBE  MARBOIS. 


APPENDIX  II 


THE    LOUISIANA    PURCHASE    TO-DAY 

Its  vast  area.  Statistical  summary1  of  the  states  and  territories 
formed  from  the  Purchase.  Fifteen  millions  of  people.  Wealth 
four  hundred  and  forty-one  times  the  purchase  money.  The 
empire  which  we  gained. 

Figures  are  dry,  but  they  can  be  helped  by  com- 
parisons.    The  Louisiana  Purchase  contains  863,072 
square  miles,  or  505,166,080  acres.     This  means  ar 
area  more  than  seven  times  that  of  Great  Britain  an 
Ireland,  and  more  than  four  times  that  of  German; 
The  Purchase  is  larger  than  Great  Britain,  Germany, 
France,  Spain,  Italy,  and  Portugal  combined. 


LOUISIANA 

This  was  the  first  state  formed  within  Louisiana 
territory. 

I.    AREA 

45,420  square  miles. 

1  From  the  Reports  of  the  12th  Census  and  Yearbooks  of 
the  Department  of  Agriculture,  except  where  otherwise  stated. 
The  1000  census  figures  for  agriculture  are  for  the  year  1899. 
290 


APPENDIX  II  297 

II.    POPULATION 

Louisiana  (1900)1,381,625.    New  Orleans  (1900)287,104. 
(1810)       76,550. 
(1803)       49,475.  (1803)      8,056. 

III.    AGRICULTURE  AND  MANUFACTURES 

Louisiana  is  chiefly  an  agricultural  state,  the  leading 
products  being  cotton,  sugar,  and  rice.  In  the  world's 
production  of  sugar  the  state  holds  third  place,  being 
led  only  by  Cuba  and  Java.  Sugar  culture  was  intro- 
duced into  Louisiana  by  the  Jesuits  in  1751.  The  phe- 
nomenal development  of  the  rice  industry  in  southwest 
Louisiana  by  means  of  irrigation  has  caused  the  con- 
struction of  hundreds  of  miles  of  irrigating  canals 
and  the  application  of  irrigation  to  more  than  one  hun- 
dred thousand  acres  of  prairie  land  which  a  few  years 
ago  had  but  a  nominal  value.  These  lands  are  now 
classed  among  the  most  valuable  in  the  state. 

In  recent  years  manufactures,  which  were  formerly 
practically  neglected  on  account  of  the  unfitness  of 
slave  labor  for  that  form  of  production,  have  made 
considerable  headway.  In  the  years  between  1850  and 
1900,  while  the  total  population  increased  160.8%, 
that  portion  of  it  dependent  upon  the  manufacturing 
industries  increased  579.9%. 

In  1900  the  value  of  manufactured  products  was 
$121,181,683,  and  the  value  of  real  and  personal 
property  was  $189,099,050;  the  value  of  farm  prod- 
ucts was  $72,667,302  in  1899,  as  against  $54,343,- 
953  in  1890  and  $42,883,522  in  1880. 


298  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

The  most  important  industries  are  sugar  refining, 
lumbering,  and  the  manufacture  of  cotton-seed  oil  and 
cake.  An  interesting  feature  of  the  sugar  refining 
has  been  the  establishment  of  large  central  refineries 
thoroughly  equipped  with  the  most  efficient  modern 
machinery.  The  planters,  who  used  to  do  their  own 
refining,  now  sell  their  raw  produce  to  the  refineries 
and  are  spared  the  cost  of  the  installation  and  main- 
tenance of  refining  machinery. 

IV.    PRODUCTS 

Cotton         (1900)  709,041  commercial  bales  (about  500  Ibs.). 
Value  $23,523,143. 

(1890)  659,180  commercial  bales. 

(1880)  508,569 
Lumber      (1900)  value  of  product  617,408,513. 

(1890)      «       »        "  5,745,194. 

(1880)      "       «        "  1,764,644. 

Timber  cut  in  1900,  1,214,387  (M  feet,  B.  M.). 
Rice  (1900)  172,732,430  Ibs.     Value  $14,044,489. 

(1890)    75,645,433    « 

(1880)    23,188,311    " 

Cane  (1900)  3,137,388  tons.    Farm  value  814,627,282. 

Sugar          (1900)  319,166,396  Ibs.     Value  $13,099,559. 

(1890)  292,124,050    « 

(1880)  171,706,000    " 

Syrup  and  molasses 

(1900)  14,184,733  gals.     Value  11,842,226. 
(1890)  14,341,081     " 
(1880)  11,696,248     " 


APPENDIX  II 


299 


Corn  (1900)  22,062,580  bu.     Value  $10,327,723. 

(1890)  13,081,954    « 
(1880)  72,852,263    " 

Tobacco      (1900)  102,100  Ibs.     Value  $20,488. 
(1890)    46,845    « 
(1880)    55,934    « 

Sheep  (1900)  169,234. 
(1890)  186,167. 
(1880)  135,631. 

Wool  (1900)  547,641  Ibs.     Value  $90,317. 

(1890)  440,686    « 
(1880)  406,678    " 


V.    HISTORICAL  EVENTS 

1803.  Napoleon   sold   the   province   of   Louisiana   to   the 

United  States. 

1804.  New  Orleans  was  incorporated. 

1807.    Orleans  territory  was  divided  into  nineteen  parishes 

or  counties. 
1812.    Louisiana  was  admitted  to  the  Union,  and  that  part 

of  West  Florida  lying  west  of  Pearl  River  was 

added  to  the  new  state. 
1812.    The  first  steamboat  on  the  Mississippi  arrived  at 

New  Orleans. 
1815.    The  battle  of  New  Orleans.     Jackson  defeated  the 

British. 
1831.    The  first  railroad  was  opened  in  the  state.     It  was 

four  and  a  half  miles  long. 
1861.    Louisiana  seceded  from  the  Union. 
1868.    Louisiana  was  restored  to  the  Union. 


300  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

1879.  James  B.  Eads  completed  his  jetties  in  the  South 

Pass,  which  opened  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi 
to  vessels  of  the  heaviest  draught. 

1880.  Bureau  of  Agriculture  and  Immigration  established. 
1884.    World's  Industrial  Cotton  Exposition  at  Xew  Orleans. 
1890.    Overflow  of  Mississippi  River  causes  loss  of  $1,213,- 

040. 

1902.  East  Louisiana  and  Southern  Louisiana  railways 
established.  Total  number  of  miles  in  state, 
2,898. 

ARKANSAS 

The  name  has  been  attributed  to  a  compound  of 
French  and  Indian  words  meaning  "  Bow  of  smoky 
water,"  and  refers  to  the  Arkansas  River. 

I.    AREA 

53,850  square  miles. 

II.    POPULATION 

(1000)  1,311,564. 
(1820)        14,255. 

III.    AGRICULTURE  AND  MANUFACTURES 

Arkansas  is  an  agricultural  state,  but  manufactures 
are  rapidly  increasing.  The  principal  products  are 
cotton,  cereals,  and  tobacco.  Fruit  growing  is  very 
successful,  and  the  state  is  famous  for  its  apples. 


APPENDIX  II  301 

Arkansas  is  rated  as  one  of  the  four  states  or  terri- 
tories having  the  greatest  comparative  gains  in  coal 
production  in  the  past  decade.  Building  stone  is  abun- 
dant, and  a  great  deposit  of  liquid  asphalt  has  been 
opened  in  Pike  County.  Beneath  it  has  been  found 
a  stratum  of  fuller's  earth.  Some  three  thousand 
people  are  engaged  in  the  pearl  industry  near  Newport. 
There  are  also  great  zinc  deposits  in  the  state. 

The  manufactures  of  lumber  and  timber  products  are 
by  far  the  most  important.  There  are  1199  establish- 
ments, representing  a  capital  of  $21,727,710,  which 
in  1900  gave  employment  to  15,895  wage  earners,  or 
sixty  per  cent  of  the  wage  earners  of  the  entire  state. 
The  value  of  their  product  was  $23,959,983,  or  fifty- 
three  per  cent  of  the  value  of  all  the  products  of  Arkan- 
sas. The  flour  and  grist  milling  industry  ranks  second, 
the  manufacture  of  cotton-seed  oil  and  cake  ranks 
third,  and  cotton  ginning  is  of  fourth  importance. 

The  value  of  farm  products  for  1900  was  $79,649,- 
490,  as  compared  with  $53,128,155  in  1890  and  $43,- 
796,261  in  1880. 

The  value  of  real  and  personal  property  for  1900 
was  $189,999,050.  The  value  of  manufactured  prod- 
ucts for  1900  was  $45,197,731. 

IV.    PRODUCTS 

Cotton          (1900)  709,880  commercial  bales.     Value  $24,- 

(571.415. 
(1890)  (i91,t!)4 
(1880)  008, 250  "  " 


302 


LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 


Corn  (1900)  44,144,098  bu.     Value  $17,572,170. 

(1890)  33,982,318   " 
(1880)  24,156,417    " 

Wheat          (1900)  2,449,970  bu.     Value  $1,383,916. 
(1890)     955,668   « 
(1880)  1,269,715    « 

Oats  (1900)  3,909,000  bu.     Value  $1,263,101. 

4,180,877   « 
2,219,822    « 

271,616  tons.     Value  $1,913,163. 
164,399     « 
20,630     " 

value  $37,483,771. 
30,772,880. 
20,472,425. 

Sheep  (1900)  168,761. 

(1890)  243,999. 
(1880)  246,757. 

Wool  (1900)  636,474  Ibs.     Value  $118,922. 

(1890)  512,396  « 
(1880)  557,368   « 

Milk  (1900)  109,861,393  gals.     Value  of  dairy  prod- 

ucts $6,912,459. 
54,325,673  gals. 

831,700  Ibs.     Value  $85,395. 
954,790    » 
970,220   " 

1,665,158  (Mfeet,  B.  M.). 
value  of  product  $23,957,983. 


(1900) 
(1890) 
(1880) 
Hay  and  forage 

(1900) 
(1890) 
(1880) 

Live  stock  (1900) 
(1890) 
(1880) 


(1890) 

Tobacco  (1900) 
(1890) 
(1880) 

Timber  cut  (19  00) 
Lumber        (1900) 


APPENDIX  II  303 

Lumber       (1890)  value  of  product  $8,943,052. 

(1880)       "      «        «  1,793,848. 

Coal1  (1899)  843,554  short  tons.     Value  $989,383. 

Flouring  and  grist  mills 

(1900)  value  of  product  $3,708,709. 

(1890)       «      «        «          2,498,168. 

V.    HISTORICAL  EVENTS 

1670.    Arkansas  was  first  settled  by  the  French,  near  St. 

Francis  River. 
1812.    Louisiana  became  a  state,  and  Arkansas  was  included 

in  Missouri  territory. 
1819.    Organized  as  Arkansas  territory. 
1836.    Organized  as  a  state,  Indian  Territory  being  cut  off. 
1861.    Seceded  from  the  Union. 
1868.    Readmitted  as  a  state. 
1892.    High-grade  silver  and  lead  ores  were  discovered  about 

fifteen  miles  from  Little  Rock. 
1898.    Federal  debt  settled. 
1902.    1,694  militia,  regularly  organized,  uniformed,  and  in 

actual  service  of  the  state. 


COLORADO 

The  Spanish  gave  the  name  of  Colorado,  which 
means  ruddy  or  red,  to  the  Colorado  River.  It  is 
frequently  called  the  "  Centennial  State,''  because  it 

1  International  Yearbook  (1900).  Census  Report  on  Mineral 
Industries  not  issued.  The  product  for  1899  is  not  representa- 
tive, the  production  having  been  interfered  with  by  serious 
strikes. 


304  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

was  admitted  in  1876.  The  country  was  partially 
explored  by  Pike  in  1806-1807  and  by  Long  in  1820. 
The  discovery  of  gold  brought  a  small  army  of  treas- 
ure seekers  to  Pike's  Peak  and  the  surrounding  coun- 
try in  1859,  and  this  began  to  draw  the  attention  of 
the  world  to  Colorado's  vast  mineral  resources. 

I.    AREA 

103,645  square  miles. 

IT.    POPULATION 

Colorado  (1900)  539,700.         Denver  (1900)  133,859. 
(1880)  194,327.  (1880)    35,029. 

(1860)    34,277.  (1860)       4,749. 

III.    AGRICULTURE  AND  MANUFACTURES 

Irrigation  holds  an  important  relation  to  Colorado 
agriculture ;  the  soil  is  rich,  but  needs  water  to  make 
it  fruitful.  Cereals  and  fruit  are  the  chief  agricul- 
tural products.  Stock  raising  is  an  important  occu- 
pation, but  mining  is  the  leading  industry ;  gold, 
silver,  lead,  copper,  and  coal  are  produced  in  abun- 
dance. The  state  produces  more  than  one  third  of 
the  yearly  output  of  silver  in  the  United  States. 

The  acreage  irrigated  in  1900  was  1,611,271. 

The  value  of  irrigated  crops  for  1900  was  $15,- 
100,690. 

The  acreage  of  improved  land  under  cultivation  in 
1900  was  about  2,000,000. 


APPENDIX  II  305 

1900.     Value  of  farm  products  was  $83,048,576. 
1890.          «       "      «  »       13,136,810. 

1880.          «      "      "  "         5,035,228. 

The  value  of  all  manufactured  products  for  1900  was 
$102,830,137. 

IV.   PRODUCTS 

Gold  (1900)  71,396  fine  ounces.     Value  $79,000,000. 

Silver  (1900)  728,334  fine  ounces. 

Lead  (1900)  82,137  short  tons.     Value  $49,937,006. 

Copper  (1900)  8,000,000  Ibs.     Value  $3,893,034. 

Iron  and  steel 

(1900)  manufactured  product  232,815  tons. 

(1890)  30,207     " 

(1880)  4,018     « 

Coal          (1900)  4,626,943  tons. 

(1880)     462,747     « 
Coke          (1900)  503,543  tons. 

(1890)  199,638     " 

(1880)     18,000     " 
Wheat       (1900)  5,587,770  bu.     Value  $2,809,370. 

(1890)  2,845,439    •< 

(1880)  1,425,014    « 
Corn          (1900)  1,275,680  bu.     Value  $508,488. 

(1890)  1,511,907     « 

(1880)      455,968     « 

Oats          (1900)  3,080.130  bu.     Value  $1,121,745. 
Sheep        (1900)  1,352.823. 

(1890)      896,810. 

(1880)  1,091,443. 


306  LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 

Wool         (1900)  8,543,937  Ibs.     Value  $1,115,331. 

(1890)  4,544,332    « 

(1880)  3,197,391    " 
Hay  and  forage 

(1900)  1,643,347  tons.     Value  $8,159,279. 

(1890)     714,555     « 

(1880)       86,562     « 
Live  stock 

(1900)  value  849,954,311. 

(1890)       "       29,075,528. 

(1880)       "       15,927,342. 
Dairy  products  (1900)  value  $3,778,901. 
Milk          (1900)  38,440,111  gals. 

(1890)  19,680,761     « 

V.   HISTORICAL  EVENTS 

1852.    Gold  was  discovered. 

1857.  Civilized  Cherokees  attempted  to  explore  Colorado 

but  were  driven  back  by  hostile  Indians. 

1858.  Colorado  explored  at  two  points,  —  near  Pike's  Peak 

by  a  company  from  Kansas,  and  in  the  southwest 
by  Georgians  under  Baker.  Both  found  gold. 

1859.  Gold  was  discovered  at  Boulder  Creek,  Clear  Creek, 

and  Leadville.  There  were  in  the  same  year 
important  discoveries  of  silver.  The  great  dis- 
coveries of  carbonate-silver  ore  at  Leadville  did 
not  come  until  1877. 

1861.  The  territory  was  formed  from  parts  of  Utah,  Xew 
Mexico,  Kansas,  and  Nebraska. 

1876.    Colorado  was  admitted  to  the  Union. 


APPENDIX  II  307 

1878.  Gold  and  silver  production  to  date  :  80  tons  pure 
gold,  770  tons  silver  ;  and  large  quantities  of  copper 
and  lead. 

1891.  The  first  passenger  train  ascended  Pike's  Peak. 

1892.  Pike's  Peak  set  apart  as  a  forest  reserve.     Gold  found 

in  large  quantities  in  Squaw  Gulch. 

1893.  Rich  gold  ores,  yielding  at  rate  of  $120,000  per  ton, 

were  found  at  Cripple  Creek  in  El  Paso  County. 
1899.    Southern  Ute  Indian  lands  opened  to  settlement. 
1901.    Colorado  first  in  beet-sugar  industry. 


INDIAN  TERRITORY 


The  whole  of  Indian  Territory  was  included  in  the 
Purchase. 

I.    AREA 

31,000  square  miles. 

II.    POPULATION 

(1900)  392,060. 

III.    AGRICULTURE  AND  MANUFACTURES 

Agriculture,  grazing,  and  lumbering  are  the  chief 
occupations.  Indian  corn  and  cotton  are  the  princi- 
pal products.  It  is  estimated  that  there  are  twenty 
thousand  square  miles  of  coal  fields.  Since  1890  the 
manufacture  of  cotton-seed  oil  and  cake  has  become 
one  of  the  most  important  industries. 


308  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

In  1900  the  value  of  farm  products  was  $27,672,- 
002,  the  value  of  manufactured  products  was  $3,892,- 
181,  and  the  value  of  real  and  personal  property  was 
$94,000,000. 


IV.    PRODUCTS 

(1900)  30,709,420  bu.     Value  86,999,018. 
(1900)    154,850  commercial  bales.     Value  $4,- 

809,929. 
(1890)    34,115 
(1880)     17,000 

Oats  (1900)  4,423,810  bu.     Value  $889,053. 

Wheat         (1900)  2,203,780  bu.     Value  81,121,259. 
Hay  and  forage  (1900)  480.009  tons.     Value  $1,139,079. 
Tobacco      (1900)  97,030  Ibs.     Value  810,284. 
Live  stock  (1900)  value  841,378,695. 

(1890)       "         5,976,729. 

(1880)       «  10,499. 

Sheep  (1900)  12,648. 

Wool  (1900)  50,711  Ibs.     Value  87,499. 

Flouring  and  grist  mills  (1900)  value  of  product  81jl98,472. 
Timber  cut  in  1900,  15,000  (M  feet,  B.  M.). 
Lumber       (1900)  value  of  product  8199,879. 
Coal1  (1899)  1,537,427  tons.     Value  $2,199,785. 

Coke  (1900)  24,339  tons. 

1  International  Yearbook.     Increase  of  over  ten  per  cent  in 
spite  of  strikes. 


APPENDIX  II  309 


V.    HISTORICAL  EVENTS 

1832.  Indian  Territory,  including  Oklahoma,  was  set  apart 
as  an  Indian  reservation. 

1834.  Definite  reservations  were  assigned  to  the  five  civi- 
lized tribes. 

1838.    The  beginning  of  their  gradual  removal. 

1892.  The  reservations  of  the  Cheyennes  and  Arapahoes, 

having  been  ceded  to   the    United    States,   were 
opened  for  white  settlement. 

1893.  The   Cherokee   strip  was  opened  and  incorporated 

with  Oklahoma. 

1901.  Opening  of  Kiowa,  Comanche,  and  Apache  reserva- 
tions to  white  settlers. 


The  name  Iowa  means  "  across  beyond,"  and  it  was 
given  by  the  Indians  to  a  district  west  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, which  formed  part  of  Michigan  territory  and 
afterward  of  Wisconsin,  becoming  later  the  territory 
of  Iowa. 

I.    AREA 

55,475  square  miles. 

II.      POPULATIOX 

(11)00)  2,231,853. 
(1850)  192,214. 
(1840)  43,112. 


310  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 


III.   AGRICULTURE  AND  MANUFACTURES 

Iowa  is  one  of  the  leading  agricultural  states,  less 
than  one  per  cent  of  the  soil  being  unfit  for  culti- 
vation. Meat  packing,  the  factory  manufacture  of 
butter,  cheese,  and  condensed  milk,  and  flour  milling 
are  the  principal  manufactures.  Coal  is  found  under 
about  one  third  of  the  state.  An  industry  peculiar 
to  Iowa  is  the  manufacture  of  pearl  buttons  from  the 
shells  of  fresh-water  mussels  found  along  the  Missis- 
sippi and  other  rivers.  The  manufacture  of  lumber 
and  timber  products,  which  was  once  important,  has 
now  declined. 

The  value  of  all  farm  products  for  1900  was  $365,- 
411,528,  as  compared  with  $159,347,844  in  1890  and 
$136,103,473  in  1880. 

The  value  of  manufactured  products  for  1900  was 
$164,617,877. 

The  value  of  real  and  personal  property  for  1900 
was  $2,106,615,620. 


IV.  PRODUCTS 
Live  stock 

(1900)  value  8278,8:50,096. 

(1890)       "       20(>,43(;,242. 

(1880)  «  124,715,10;}. 
Corn  (1900)  383,453,190  bu.  Value  897,297,707. 

(1890)  313,130,782     « 

(1880)  275,014,247    " 


APPENDIX  II  311 

Oats          (1900)  108,304,170  bu.     Value  $33,254,987. 
(18!)0)  140,079,289    « 
(1880)     50,610,591     " 

Wheat       (1900)  22,709,440  bu.     Value  $11,457,808. 
(1890)     8,249,780    « 
(1880)  31,154,205     " 

Potatoes   (1900)  17,305,919  bu.     Value  $3,870,746. 
(1890)  18,008,311     « 
(1880)     9,902,537     » 

Milk          (1900)  535,872,240  gals.   Value  of  dairy  products 

$27,510,870. 
(1890)  486,901,411  gals. 

Hay  and  forage 

(1900)  0,000,169  tons.     Value  $30,042,246. 
(1890)  7,264,700     « 
(1880)  3,613,941     " 

Sheep  (1900)  657,868. 
(1890)  547,394. 
(1880)  455,359. 

Wool         (1900)  5,015,965  Ibs.     Value  $992,334. 
(1890)  2,649,652    « 
(1880)  2,971,975    " 

Coal1         (1900)  4,645,481  tons. 

(1899)5,177,479     "        Value  $0,397,338. 
(1880)  1,442,333     « 

Slaughtering  and  meat  packing 

(1900)  value  of  product  $25,095,044. 
(1890)       «      «  23,425,570. 

1  Statistical  Abstract,  12th  Census.     Value  of  output  in  1899 
was  the  largest  in  the  history  of  the  state. 


312  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Flouring  and  grist  mills 

(1900)  value  of  product  $13,823,083. 
(1890)      "      «         «         11,833,737. 

V.    HISTORICAL  EVENTS 

1833.    The    first    permanent    settlements    were    made    at 

Dubuque,  Fort  Madison,  and  Burlington. 
1838.    Territory  of  Iowa  organized. 
1846.    Iowa  was  admitted  to  statehood. 

1855.  The  first  railway  was  built  in  Iowa. 

1856.  The  first  locomotive  to  cross  the  Mississippi  passed 

over  the    first    railroad   bridge    across  the  river, 
between  Rock  Island  and  Davenport. 

1857.  The  Spirit  Lake   massacre  occurred,  which  greatly 

retarded  the  development  of  the  state  in  the  region 
of  Okoboji  and  Spirit  Lake. 

1870.  Geological  Survey  of  State  published. 

1871.  Corner  stone  for  State  Capitol  laid  at  Des  Moines. 
1877.    Canal  around  the  Des  Moines  rapids  opened.    Length, 

7£  miles;  cost,  $4,500,000. 
1800.    A  rich  lead  mine  discovered  near  Dubuque. 

KANSAS 

The  first  white  men  to  enter  the  present  limits  of 
Kansas  were  Coronado  and  other  Spanish  adelantados. 
In  1804  Lewis  and  Clark,  the  American  explorers, 
kept  the  Fourth  of  July  on  Independence  Creek, 
near  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Atchison.  Two 
years  later  Zebulon  Pike  crossed  Kansas  to  Colorado 
and  discovered  Pike's  Peak. 


APPENDIX  II  313 

The  bloody  conflict  to  keep  Kansas  a  free  state 
and  to  exclude  slavery  forms  a  thrilling  chapter  in 
our  national  history. 

I.    AREA 

81,700  square  miles. 

IT.    POPULATION 

(1900)  1,470,495. 
(18(iO)  107,200. 
(1854)  about  8,000. 

III.    AGRICULTURE  AND  MANUFACTURES 

Agriculture  and  grazing  are  the  leading  pursuits. 
The  state  is  among  the  first  in  the  production  of 
wheat  and  corn.  Tobacco,  castor  beans,  and  cotton 
are  also  important  staples.  Silk  culture  is  becoming 
a  notable  industry.  Horticulture  is  being  success- 
fully developed,  and  in  1900  there  were  over  eleven 
million  apple  trees  in  the  state.  The  chief  industries 
are  meat  packing,  flour  milling,  and  car  construction. 
Zinc  is  mined  in  large  quantities,  and  coal  underlies 
about  a  fifth  of  the  state. 

The  value  of  farm  products  for  1900  was  $209,865,- 
542,  as  against  $95,070,080  in  1890  and  $52,240,361 
in  1880. 

The  value  of  manufactured  products  for  1900  was 
$172,129,398,  and  the  value  of  real  and  personal  prop- 
erty was  $1,021,833,294. 


314  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

IV.    PRODUCTS 

Corn          (1900)  229,937,430  bu.     Value  $58,079,738. 

(1890)  259,574,508    « 

(1880)  105,729,325    « 
Wheat       (1900)  38,778,450  bu.     Value  619,132,455. 

(1890)  30,399,871     « 

(1880)  17,324,141     « 

Oats          (1900)  24,469,980  bu.     Value  $4,915,896. 

(1890)  44,629,034    « 

(1880)     8,180,385    « 
Potatoes    (1900)  8,091,745  bu.     Value  82,485,800. 

(1890)  8,242,953     « 

(1880)  2,894,198    « 

Milk          (1900)  244,909,123  gals.     Value  of   dairy  prod- 
ucts $11,782,902. 

(1890)  201,608,099  gals. 
Hay  and  forage 

(1900)  7,060,671  tons.     Value  818,499,287. 

(1890)  4,854,900     " 

(1880)  1,001,932     « 
Sheep        (1900)  179,907. 

(1890)  401,192. 

(1880)  029,671. 
Wool         (1900)  1,599,374  Ibs.     Value  8247,895. 

(1890)  2,253,240     « 

(1880)  2,855,832     « 
Live  stock 

(1900)  value  8190,956,936. 

(1890)       «        128,008,305. 

(1880)       «         62,704.149. 


APPENDIX  II  315 

Slaughtering  and  meat  packing 

(1900)  value  of  product  $77,411,883. 
(1890)       «      »  44,090,077. 

Flouring  and  grist  mills 

(1900)  value  of  product  $21,926,708. 
(1890)       "      »  17,420,475. 

Coal1        (1900)  3,989,170  tons.     Value  $4,478,112. 
(1880)      703,597     " 

Zinc  (1900)  value  of  product  8-3,790,144. 


V.    HISTORICAL  EVENTS 

1820.  The  first  white  settlements  of  any  importance  were 
made  by  Osage  missionaries. 

1854.    The  territory  was  organized. 

18(51.  After  prolonged  conflict  between  the  free-soil  and 
proslavery  parties,  Kansas  was  admitted  to  the 
Union.  In  the  same  year  the  first  overland  stage- 
coach arrived  at  Leavenworth,  seventeen  days 
from  San  Francisco. 

1874.    Mennonites  purchase  100,000  acres  of  railroad  lands. 

1877.    Lead  discovered  in  Cherokee  County. 

1889.  Legislature  appropriates  813,000  to  encourage  silk 
industry. 

1898.  Lands  taken  from  Indians  by  United  States  restored 
by  United  States  Supreme  Court.  Value  §1,250,- 
000. 

1902.    652  rural  free -deli  very  routes  in  operation. 

1  International  Yearbook. 


316  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

MINNESOTA 

The  name  means  "  cloudy  water."  About  one  third 
of  Minnesota  was  not  included  in  the  Purchase. 
It  is  known  as  the  "  Gopher  State." 

I.    AREA 

79,205  square  miles. 

II.    POPULATION 

(15)00)  1,751,394. 
(I860)  172,023. 
(1850)  6,077. 

III.    AGRICULTURE  AND  MANUFACTURES 

Two  thirds  of  the  state  are  devoted  to  agricul- 
ture. Horticulture  is  an  important  industry,  as  is 
also  stock  raising.  Flour  and  grist  milling,  lumber- 
ing, meat  packing,  and  brewing  are  the  most  impor- 
tant occupations.  Building  stone  is  abundant,  and 
Minnesota  is  at  the  head  of  the  list  for  the  production 
of  iron  ore. 

The  value  of  farm  products  for  1900  was  $161,217,- 
,304,  as  against  $71,238,2,30  in  1890  and  $49,468,591 
in  1880. 

The  value  of  manufactured  products  for  1900  was 
$262,655,881,  and  of  real  and  personal  property 
$585,083,328. 


APPENDIX  II  317 


IV.    PKODUCTS 

Wheat       (1000)  95,278,600  bu.     Value  $50,601,948. 

(18!H>)  52,800,297    " 

(1880)  34,601,030    « 
Oats  (1900)  74,054,150  bu.     Value  $15,829,804. 

(1890)  49,958,791    " 

(1880)  23,382,158    « 
Corn          (1900)  47,250,920  bu.     Value  $11,337,105. 

(1890)  24,696,440    « 

(1880)  14,831,741    « 
Potatoes    (1900)  14,463,327  bu.     Value  $3,408,997. 

(1890)  11,155,707    " 

(1880)     5,184,070    " 
Hay  and  forage 

(1900)  4,339,328  tons.     Value  $14,585,281. 

(1890)  3,135,241      « 

(1880)  1,037.109     « 

Milk          (1900)  304,017,100  gals.    Value  of  dairy  products 
$10.623,400. 

(1890)  182,908,973  gals. 
Sheep        (1900)  359,328. 

(1890)  399,049. 

(1880)  207,598. 

Wool         (1900)2,012,73711)8.     Value  $400,305. 

(1890)  1,945,249     « 

(1880)  1,352,124     « 
Live  stock 

(1900)  value  $89,003,097. 

(1890)       «        57.725.li83. 

(1880)      "        31,904,821. 


318  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Flouring  and  grist  mills 

(1900)  value  of  product  $83,877,709. 

(1890)       '<      «  60,158,088. 

Timber  cut  (1900)  2,441,198  (M  feet,  B.  M.). 

Lumber       (1900)  value  of  product  $43,585,161. 
(1890)       «      «  25,075,132. 

(1880)      «      «  7,366,038. 

Iron  ore       (1900)  8,000,000  tons. 
Iron  and  steel 

(1900)  manufactured  product  42,528  tons. 

(1890)  2,290     « 

V.    HISTORICAL  EVENTS. 

1680.  The  Falls  of  St.  Anthony  were  discovered  and 
named  by  Father  Hennepin,  the  most  important 
of  the  early  explorers  of  the  state. 

1783.  The  part  of  Minnesota  east  of  the  Mississippi 
became  United  States  territory  by  treaty,  and 
was  included  in  the  Xorthwest  Territory  organ- 
ized under  the  ordinance  of  1787.  It  was  later 
part  of  Indiana,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin  terri- 
tories successively. 

1803.  The  lands  west  of  the  Mississippi  came  into  pos- 
session of  the  United  States  by  the  Louisiana 
Purchase,  and  belonged  successively  to  the  terri- 
tories of  upper  Louisiana.  Arkansas,  Missouri, 
and  Iowa. 

1805.  The  expedition  of  Zebulon  Pike  furnished  the  first 
information  as  to  climate,  soil,  and  natural 
resources. 


APPENDIX  II  319 

1818.    Fort  Snelling  was  founded. 

1821.  The  first  manufactory  in  Minnesota,  a  sawmill  at 
Fort  Snelling,  was  established. 

1827.  The  first  white  settlers,  Swiss  refugees,  appeared  at 
Fort  Snelling,  and  were  allowed  to  cultivate  lands 
belonging  to  the  fort. 

1849.    Minnesota  was  organized  as  a  territory. 

1851.  Twenty-one  million  acres  of  land  were  acquired 
from  the  Dakotas  by  treaty  with  Traverse,  the 
Sioux. 

1858.    The  territory  was  admitted  as  a  state. 

1860.  At  about  this  time  a  French  millwright,  M.  N. 
La  Croix,  settled  Faribault,  and  introduced  the 
new  process  of  flour  milling  which  has  since 
caused  the  prosperity  of  Minneapolis  and  spread 
over  the  United  States.  After  its  adoption  large 
exports  of  flour  were  made  from  the  United  States, 
whereas  previous  exports  had  been  in  the  form 
of  grain. 

1862-1863.  In  August,  1862,  a  party  of  drunken  Indians, 
belonging  to  Little  Crow's  band  of  Sioux  in  western 
Minnesota,  committed  some  murders  which  led  to 
massacres  by  the  entire  band  and  a  prolonged 
warfare  on  the  part  of  the  Sioux,  attended  by 
indescribable  horrors.  By  December  they  were 
defeated  and  thirty-eight  of  the  leaders  were  hung  ; 
but  another  uprising  followed  the  next  year.  These 
outbreaks  form  the  most  painful  page  in  the 
history  of  Minnesota. 

1870.    Northern  Pacific  Railroad  begun. 

1883.    Completion  of  Northern  Pacific  Railroad. 

1898.    Outbreak  of  Indians  at  Bear  Lake. 

1902.    Land  values  increased  in  a  year  from  $5.76  to  $9.78. 


320  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

MISSOURI 

This  name  formed  two  Indian  words  meaning  "  big 
muddy,"  and  referred  to  the  Missouri  River. 

I.    AKEA 

68,735  square  miles. 

II.    POPULATION 

Missouri  (1900)  3,100,00;!.     St.  Louis  (1900)  575,238. 
(1820)        00,587. 
(1810)        20,845. 

III.    AGRICULTURE  AND  MANUFACTURES 

The  principal  agricultural  productions  are  cereals, 
tobacco,  and  fruit,  horticulture  being  one  of  the  most 
profitable  occupations  in  the  state.  Stock  raising 
and  dairy  farming  are  also  extensively  followed. 
The  state  has  a  vast  wealth  in  manufacturing  busi- 
ness, being  one  of  the  largest  manufacturing  centers 
of  the  country  and  holding  the  first  place  for  tobacco 
manufacture.  Meat  packing,  flour  milling,  and  brew- 
ing are  the  leading  industries. 

The  value  of  farm  products  for  1900  was  $219,296,- 
970,  as  against  $109,751,024  in  1890  and  $95,912,- 
660  in  1880. 

The  value  of  manufactured  products  for  1900  was 
$385,492,784,  and  that  of  real  and  personal  property 
was  $1,093,091,264. 


APPENDIX  II  321 


IV.    PRODUCTS 

Corn          (1900)  208,844,870  bu.     Value  $61,240,305. 
(1890)  190,999,016    " 
(1880)  202,214,41:3    « 

Wheat       (1900)  2:3,072,708  bu.     Value  $13,520,012. 
(1890)  30,113,821    " 
(1880)  24,900,027    " 

Hay  and  forage 

(1900)  4,002,199  tons.     Value  $20,407,501. 
(1890)  3,135,241     « 
(1880)  1,083,929     « 

Milk          (1900)  258,207.755  gals.  Value  of  dairy  products 

815,042,300. 
(1890)  193,931,103  gals. 

Sheep  (1900)  003,703. 
(1890)  950,502. 
(1880)  1,411,298. 

Wool         (1900)  4,145,137  Ibs.     Value  8822,871. 
(1890)  4,040,084    » 
(1880)  7,313,924    » 

Live  stock 

(1900)  value  $100,540,004. 
(1890)  «  138.701.173. 
(1880)  »  95.785,282. 

Timber  cut  (1900)  721,032  (M  feet,  B.  M.). 

Lumber     (1900)  value  of  product  811.177,529. 
(1880)       «      "  5,205,017. 


322  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Tobacco1  (1900)    3,041,996  Ibs.     Value  $218,991. 

(1890)    9,424,823    " 

(1880)  12,015,657     " 
Slaughtering  and  meat  packing 

(1900)  value  of  product  $43,040,885. 

(1890)       «      «  18,320,193. 

Flouring  and  grist  mills 

(1900)  value  of  product  $26,393,928. 

(1890)      "      -;  34,468,765. 

Coal  (1900)  3,160,806  tons. 

(1880)      543,990     " 
Iron  and  steel 

(1900)  product  of  manufactures  100,001  tons. 

(1890)  114.945     « 

(1880)  112,284     « 

Lead          (1900)  value  of  product  83,852,435. 
Zinc  (1900)  value  of  product  $2,011.724. 

V.    HISTORICAL  EVENTS 

1767.  Pierre  Laclede  founded  a  trading  post  on  the  river, 
and  named  it  in  honor  of  Louis  XV. 

1775.  St.  Louis  had  become  a  well-known  fur  depot  and 
trading  station  and  had  about  eight  hundred 
inhabitants. 

1804.  Captain  Stoddard  of  the  United  States  army  suc- 
ceeded the  Spanish  commandant  at  St.  Louis,  and 
the  region  was  organized  into  the  territory  of 
Louisiana.  St.  Louis  was  made  the  capital. 

1  While  the  production  of  tobacco  has  greatly  decreased,  the 
manufacture  has  greatly  increased. 


APPENDIX  11  323 

1812.    Louisiana  became  a  state,  and  the  name  of  the  ter- 
ritory was  changed  to  Missouri  territory. 
1817.    The  beginning  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  agitation. 
1817.    The  first  steamboat  arrived  at  St.  Louis. 

1821.  Missouri  was  admitted  as  a  state  to  the  Union. 

1822.  St.  Louis  received  a  city  charter. 

1852.  The  first  railway  in  the  state  was  opened,  with 
thirty-eight  miles  of  track. 

1873.  Opening  of  tubular  steel  bridge  across  the  Missis- 
sippi River  at  St.  Louis,  erected  by  J.  B.  Eads. 

1901-1902.  Expenditure  of  $900,000  in  buildings  for 
public  institutions. 

MONTANA 

The   name    is    taken    from    the    French   word   for 

mountain. 

I.    AREA 

115,310  square  miles. 

IT.    POPULATION 

(1900)  243,329. 
(1801)  about  11,000. 

III.    AGRICULTURE  AND  MANUFACTURES 

Agriculture  is  handicapped  by  need  of  irrigation,1 
the  acreage  under  cultivation  being  1,151,674,  of 
which  the  acreage  irrigated  is  951.154.  The  value 

1  The  greatly  increased  recognition  of  the  importance  of 
irrigation  as  shown  in  legislation,  in  appropriations,  and  in  such 
action  as  the  meeting  of  the  Irrigation  Congress  in  1903,  argues 
favorably  for  the  increased  utilization  of  Western  lands. 


324  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

of  irrigated  crops  in  1900  was  $7,281,567.  Wheat 
yields  about  thirty  bushels  to  the  acre.  Stock  raising 
is  an  important  occupation,  and  the  state  is  one  of  the 
first  in  sheep  raising  and  the  production  of  raw  wool. 
The  chief  industry  of  the  state,  however,  is  mining. 

The  value  of  farm  products  for  1900  was  $28,616,957, 
as  against  $6,273,415  in  1890  and  $2,024,923  in  1880. 

The  value  of  manufactured  products  for  1900  was 
$57,075,824,  and  that  of  real  and  personal  property 
was  $153,441,154. 

IV.    PRODUCTS 

Oats  (1900)  4,746,231  bu.     Value  £1,700,938. 

(1890)  1,535,615    " 

(1880)      900,915    " 
Wheat          (1900)  1,899,683  bu.     Value  81,077,210. 

(1890)      457,607    " 

(1880)      469,688    « 

Hay  and  forage 

(1900)  1,059,268  tons.     Value  $5,974,850. 

(1890)     268,689     » 

(1880)        62,709     « 
Sheep  (1900)  4,215,214. 

(1890)  2,352,886. 

(1880)      279,277. 
Wool  (1900)  30.437,829  Ibs.     Value  $ 5,136.658. 

(1890)  12,177,467     » 

(1880)       995,484    « 
Live  stock   (1900)  value  $52,161.833. 

(1890)       »        33.266,752. 

(1880)      "         9,170,554. 


APPENDIX  II  325 

Copper    (1900)  value  of  product  8.36,387,063. 
Silver      (1900)  coinage  value  $21,786,874. 
Lead       (1900)  value  of  product  $5,264,253. 
Gold        (1900)  value  of  product  $4,819,150. 
Coal        (1900)  1,483,728  tons. 
(1880)  224     " 

V.    HISTORICAL  EVENTS 

1827.    Trading  post  established  on  the  Yellowstone  River. 

1852.    Gold  was  discovered. 

1861.    Discoveries  of  gold.     The  growth  of  the  state  dates 

from  this  time. 
1864.    Montana  was  organized  as  a  territory  distinct  from 

Idaho  territory,  of  which  it  had  been  a  part. 
1876.    Battle  of  the  Little  liig  Horn. 
1880.    The  first  railroad  entered  Montana. 
1892.    The  surplus  lands  of  the  Crow  Indian  reservation  in 

southern   Montana   (about  1,800,000   acres)  were 

opened  to  settlement. 

NEBRASKA 

The  name,  taken  from  two  Indian  words,  means 
'•  shallow  water."  The  state  was  formerly  known  as 
the  "  Black  Water  State."  It  is  officially  described 
as  the  "  Tree  Planters'  State,"  and  popularly  as  the 
"  Antelope  State." 

I.    AREA 

76,840  square  miles. 

II.  POPULATION 
(1900)  1,006. 300. 
(1860)  28,841. 


326  LOUISIANA  PUECHASE 

III.   AGRICULTURE  AND  MANUFACTURES 

Nebraska  is  an  agricultural  state,  and  ranks  among 
the  first  for  corn  production.  The  sugar  beet  is  an 
important  product,  and  horticulture  is  very  successful, 
apples,  plums,  and  peaches  forming  the  principal  crops. 
It  is  one  of  the  chief  stock-raising  and  meat-packing 
states.  The  principal  manufactures  are  farm  imple- 
ments, foundry  products,  flour  milling,  and  sugar 
refining.  The  acreage  of  improved  land  in  1896  was 
18,091,936. 

The  value  of  farm  products  for  1900  was  $162,696,- 
386,  as  against  $66,837,617  in  1890  and  $31,708,914 
in  1880. 

The  value  of  manufactured  products  for  1900  was 
$143,990,102,  and  that  of  real  and  personal  property 
$171,747,593. 

IV.    PRODUCTS 

Corn          (1000)  210,974,740  bu.     Value  $51,251,213. 

(1800)  215,805,006    " 

(1880)     65,450,135    " 
Wheat       (1900)  24,801,000  bu.     Value  $1-3,145,007. 

(1890)  1(1,571,050    » 

(1880)  13,847,007    « 
Oats  (1000)  58,007,140  bu.     Value  $11,333,303. 

(1890)  43,843,640    " 

(1880)     6,555,875    « 
Hay  and  forage 

(1000)  3,502.380  tons.     Value  $11,230,010. 

(1800)  3,115,308     « 

(1880)      786,722     « 


APPENDIX  II  327 

Milk          (1900)190,477,911  gals.    Value  of  dairy  products 

$8,595,408. 
(1890)  144,708,203  gals. 

Sheep  (1900)  335,950. 
(1890)  209,243. 
(1880)  247,453. 

Wool         (1900)  2,788,839  Ibs.     Value  $420,344. 
(1890)     791,534    " 
(1880)  1,282,050     « 

Live  stock 

(1900)  value  $145,349,587. 
(1890)  «  92,971,920. 
(1880)  «  40,350,205. 


V.    HISTORICAL  EVENTS 

1804.  The  Lewis  and  Clark  expedition  passed  up  the 
west  bank  of  the  Missouri.  This  was  the  first 
important  expedition  after  the  early  Spanish  and 
French  explorers. 

1810.    The  first  settlement  was  made  at  Bellevue. 

1849.  The  beginning  of  the  great  western  movement  of 
gold-hunters  occurred,  which  incidentally  estab- 
lished towns  in  Nebraska  along  the  west  bank  of 
the  Missouri. 

1854.    Nebraska  was  organized  as  a  territory. 

1807.  The  territory  was  admitted  to  statehood,  the  capital 
being  removed  from  Omaha  to  Lincoln. 

1809.    The  Union  Pacific  Railroad  was  opened  for  traffic. 

1875.    Present  state  constitution  framed. 

1902.    Coal  discovered  near  Jamestown. 


328  LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 

NOKTH  DAKOTA 

The  name  Dakota  was  taken  from  the  general  name 
of  the  Sioux  tribes,  and  signified  "  many  united 
tribes." 

I.    AREA 

70,195  square  miles. 

H.    POPULATION 

(1900)  :311),U6. 
(1890)  182,719. 
(1800)  4,837. 

III.    AGRICULTURE  AND  MANUFACTURES 

Agriculture  is  the  principal  occupation,  and  wheat 
is  cultivated  very  extensively,  great  wheat  farms  of 
20,000  acres  being  not  uncommon.  Horse  and  cattle 
raising  is  second  in  importance.  The  estimated  area 
of  grazing  lands  is  40,000,000  .acres.  The  manufac- 
tures are  for  the  most  part  domestic  and  local. 

The  value  of  farm  products  for  1000  was  $64.252,- 
494,  as  against  $21,264,938  in  1890  and  $5,648.814 
in  1880.1 

The  value  of  manufactured  products  for  1900  was 
$9,183,114,  and  that  of  real  and  personal  property 
$143,000,000. 

1  Includes  South  Dakota. 


APPENDIX  11 


329 


Oats 


Corn 


Sheep 


TV.    PRODUCTS 

Wheat      (1900)  59,888,810  bu.     Value  $31,733,703. 

(1890)  '20,403,305    " 

(1880)1  2,830,289    « 

(1900)  22,125,331  bu.     Value  $5,852,015. 

(1890)    5,733,129    " 

(1900)    l,284,870bu.     Value  .$397,278. 

(1890)       178,729    " 

(1880)1  2,000,804  « 
Hay  and  forage 

(1900)  1,747,390  tons.     Value  $5,182,917. 

(1890)      531,472     " 

(1880)1    308,030     " 

(1900)  451,437. 

(1890)  130,413. 

(1880)1  85,244. 

(1900)  3,030,478  Ibs.     Value  $503,744. 

(1890)      510,417     " 

(1880)1  157,025  " 
Live  stock 

(1900)  value  $42,430,491. 

(1890)       «        18,7S7.294. 

(1880)1     »          7.555,274. 

V.    HISTORICAL  EVKXTS 

1804  to  1800.  Lewis  and  Clark  explored  the  Dakotas,  win- 
tering near  Bismarck,  1804-1805. 

1831.  The  steamer  YeUotrstnne  reached  Fort  Tecumsch  (aft- 
erward Fort  Pierre,  S.D.)  and  the  following  year 
ascended  to  Fort  Union,  X.D. 

1  Includes  South  Dakota. 


330  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

1851.  The  first  land  was  obtained  from  the  Sioux  Indians. 

1861.  Dakota  territory  was  organized. 

1889.  North  Dakota  was  admitted  as  a  state. 

1892.  The  Turtle  Indians  cede  all  right  and  title  to  lands 

in  the  Devil's  Lake  District. 

1902.  New  military  post  established  near  Bismarck. 


OKLAHOMA 

In  1889  Oklahoma,  up  to  that  time  an  Indian 
reservation,  was  opened  for  settlement.  From  1850, 
when  as  "  Xo  Man's  Land  "  it  was  ceded  to  the  United 
States,  until  its  opening  to  white  settlers,  these  unoc- 
cupied lands  were  the  scene  of  perpetual  struggle 
between  the  government  troops  sent  to  enforce  the 
proclamations  against  settlement  and  organized  bands 
of  men  determined  upon  taking  up  the  lands.  In 
1901,  3,000,000  acres  of  Indian  lands  were  opened. 
They  now  contain  a  population  estimated  at  80,000. 
Three  counties  have  been  organized,  and  the  county 
seats  have  populations  of  from  8,000  to  12.000.  The 
property  of  the  settlers  in  this  new  country  is  esti- 
mated to  be  worth  $9,000.000,  according  to  the 
county  clerks,  on  a  basis  of  one  third  to  one  fourth 
real  value.  This  showing  for  two  years  illustrates 
the  rapid  development  of  the  last  of  the  available 
new  lands  of  the  West.  The  total  population  of 
Oklahoma  (1903)  is  estimated  at  550,000,  and  with 
the  Indian  Territory  added  there  would  be  about 
1,100,000.  The  admission  of  these  two  territories 


APPENDIX  II  331 

into  the   Union   as    one   or   two   states    lies    in   the 
immediate  future. 

1.    AREA 

38,830  square  miles. 

II.    POPULATION 

(1900)  398,331. 
(1890)     61,831. 

III.    AGRICULTURE  AND  MANUFACTURES 

Agriculture,  horticulture,  and  stock  raising  are  the 
principal  occupations,  yet  the  increase  in  manufac- 
tures between  1890  and  1900  was  more  striking  than 
that  in  any  other  state  or  territory. 

The  value  of  farm  products  for  1900  was  $45,447,- 
744,  as  against  $440,375  in  1890. 

The  value  of  manufactured  products  for  1900  was 
$7,083,938,  and  that  of  real  and  personal  property 
$150,000,000. 

IV.    PRODUCTS 

Corn        (1000)  1 52,0.1."), .",00  1m.     Value  818,037,895. 
(18!)0)          234.31.1    « 

Wheat      (1900)  18,124. 5:20  1m.      Value  8s. ()S9. 410. 

(189(1)  30.175    « 

Oats         (1900)5,087,9301)11.     Value  £1.079,802. 

(1890)        70.194    « 
Cotton     (1900)  70.075  commercial  bales.  Value  82.217.1 19. 

(1800)        425  «  « 


332  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

Hay  and  forage 

(1900)  1,137,290  tons.     Value  $2,883,682. 
(1890)       40,473     » 

Sheep        (1900)  48,535. 
(1890)  10,565. 

Wool         (1900)  278,425  Ibs.     Value  837,750. 
(1890)     59,114     « 

Live  stock 

(1900)  value  854,829,568. 

(1890)      "          3,206,270. 

(1880)      «  876,000. 

Flouring  and  grist  mills  (1900)  value  of  product  83,745,434. 

V.    HISTORICAL  EVENTS 

1889.  Oklahoma    separated    from    Indian    Territory   and 

opened  for  settlement. 

1890.  Oklahoma  territory  organized. 

1891.  Cession  of  lands  was  made  by  Sac  and  Fox,  Pot- 

tawattomie,  Shawnee,  Cheyenne,  and  Arapahoe 
Indians,  which  opened  300,000  more  acres  to  white 
settlement. 

1900.    The  governor  claimed  that  Oklahoma  was  entitled  to 
admission  as  a  state. 


APPENDIX  1L  333 

SOUTH  DAKOTA 

This  has  been  called  the  "  Coyote  State." 

I.    AREA 

76,850  square  miles. 

II.    POPULATION 

(1900)  410,570. 
(1890)  328,808. 

III.    AGRICULTURE  AND  MANUFACTURES 

Two  thirds  of  the  population  are  engaged  in  agri- 
cultural pursuits.  Wheat,  corn,  and  oats  are  the 
leading  products,  and  stock  raising  is  very  profitable. 
Milling  is  an  important  industry,  and  the  state  is 
very  rich  in  minerals,  gold  and  silver  leading. 

The  value  of  farm  products  for  1900  was  $66,082,- 
419,  as  against  $22,047,279  in  1890. 

The  value  of  manufactured  products  for  1900  was 
$12,213.239,  and  that  of  real  and  personal  property 
$172,225,085. 

IV.    PRODUCTS 

Wheat       (1900)  41,SS9,:>>80  l>u.     Value  $20,957, 917. 

(1890)  1(5,541,1:58    " 
Corn          (1900)  32,402,r>40  1m.     Value  $7,20:3.1-27. 

(1890)  13,152,008    " 


334  LOUISIANA  PUECHASE 

Hay  and  forage 

(1900)  2,378,392  tons.     Value  $5,954,229. 
(1890)  1,541,524     « 

Oats          (1900)  19,412,490  bu.     Value  84,114,456. 
(1890)    7,409,846    « 

Sheep        (1900)  507,338. 
(1890)  238,518. 

Wool         (1900)  3,426,945  Ibs.     Value  $525,652. 
(1890)  1,074,289    « 

Live  stock 

(1900)  value  $65,173,432. 
(1890)      "        29,689,509. 

Gold          (1900)  84,723  fine  ounces. 

Silver        (1900)  317,263  fine  ounces. 

Copper      (1900)  contents  of  matte  2,175,549  Ibs. 

V.    HISTORICAL  EVENTS 

1857.  The  first  settlement  was  made  at  Sioux  Falls. 

1861.  Dakota  was  organized  as  a  territory. 

1872.  The  first  railroad  entered  the  state. 

1889.  South  Dakota  was  separated  from  Xorth  Dakota  and 

admitted  as  a  state. 

1890.  The  Sioux  reservation,  containing  9.000,000  acres, 

was  opened  to  white  settlers. 

1892.  The  Yankton  Sioux  ceded  part  of  their  reservation 

between  the  Choteau  and  Missouri  rivers. 

1893.  The    state    legislature    passed    an    act   to    promote 

irrigation. 
1902.    Oil  discovered  thirty  miles  from  Sisseton. 


APPENDIX  II  335 

WYOMING 

The  name  comes  from  an  Indian  word,  and  means 
11  broad  plain." 

I.    AREA 
97,575  square  miles. 

II.    POPULATION 

(1900)  92,531. 
(1890)  60,705. 
(1868)  9,118. 

ITT.    AGRICULTURE  AND  MANUFACTURES 

It  is  estimated  that  12,000,000  acres  can  be  made 
fit  for  cultivation  by  means  of  irrigation.  The  ele- 
vation of  the  state  (average  probably  6400  feet)  also 
limits  agricultural  production,  as  cereals  and  other 
ordinary  products  of  the  section  will  not  thrive 
above  7500  feet.  Stock  raising  is  the  leading  pur- 
suit. Mineral  resources  are  still  to  a  great  extent 
undeveloped.  There  are  about  13,000,000  acres  of 
coal  fields,*  and  large  oil  districts. 

The  acreage  irrigated  in  1900  was  605,878,  and  its 
value  $2,886,949. 

The  value  of  farm  products  for  1900  was  $11,907,415, 
as  against  $2,241,590  in  1890  and  $372,391  in  1880. 

The  value  of  manufactured  products  for  1900  was 
$4,301,240,  and  that  of  real  and  personal  property 
$37,892,303. 


336  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

IV.    PRODUCTS 

Oats  (1900)  763,370  bu.     Value  8292,630. 

(1890)  388,505    " 
(1880)    22,512    « 

Wheat       (1900)  348,890  bu.     Value  $191,195. 
(1890)    74,450    " 
(1880)      4,674    " 

Hay  and  forage 

(1900)  462,101  tons.     Value  82,332,028. 
(1890)  147,963     « 
(1880)    23,516     « 

Sheep  (1900)  3,327,185. 
(1890)  712,520. 
(1880)  450,225. 

Wool         (1900)  27,758,309  Ibs.     Value  84,036,227. 
(1890)    4,146,733     « 
(1880)        691,650    •' 

Live  stock 

(1900)  value  839,145,877. 
(1890)  "  18,785,301. 
(1880)  "  9,182,107. 

Coal  (1900)  3,584.466  tons. 

(1880)      589,595     " 

Coke          (1900)  15,630  tons. 

Iron  and  steel 

(1900)  manufactured  product  9,422  tons. 
(1890)  8,308     " 

(1880)  8,741     « 


APPENDIX  II  337 


V.    HISTORICAL  EVKNTS 

1841.    The  first  emigrant  train  for  Oregon  and  California 

crossed  Wyoming. 

1867.    Gold  was  discovered  and  Cheyenne  city  established. 
18G8.    Wyoming    territory    was    organized    from    Dakota, 

Idaho,   and   Utah. 

1890.    The  territory  was  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  state. 
1894.    A  rich  gold  strike  is  made  in  Dutch  Tom  Gulch. 
1902.    Completion  of  the  longest  aerial  tramway  in  the 

world,    extending    from    Battle    Creek    to   Grand 

Encampment,  a  distance  of  sixteen  miles. 


338 


LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 


The  following  table,  based  on  the  last  census,  sum- 
marizes the  area,  population,  and  taxable  property  of 
the  states  and  territories  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase. 

THE  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE  IN   1900 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES 

AREA 

POPULATION 

WEALTH 

Arkansas  .... 

53  850 

1  311  564 

§189  999  050 

Colorado  *     .... 
Indian  Territory    .     . 
Iowa    

103.645 

31,000 

539,700 
302,060 
2,231,853 

430,000,000 
94,000,000 
2  106  615  620 

Kansas     
Louisiana      .... 
Minnesota1  .... 
Missouri  

81,700 
45.420 
79,205 
68,735 

1,740,495 
1,381,625 
1,751,394 
3,106,665 

1,021,833,294 
267.723,138 
585,083,328 
1,093,091,264 

Montana  l 
Nebraska  

145,310 

76,840 

243,329 
1,066.300 

153,441,154 
171,747,593 

North  Dakota    . 
South  Dakota    .     .     . 
Oklahoma1  .... 
Wyoming  l  . 

70,195 
76,850 
38,830 
97,575 

319,146 
401,570 
398.831 
92,531 

143,000.000 

172,225,085 
150,000,000 
37,892,303 

Total    

1.024,630 

14.887,063 

§6,616,651,829 

The  Louisiana  territory,  once  ridiculed  as  for  the 
most  part  a  barren  wilderness,  now  contains  as  many 
inhabitants  as  there  were  dollars  paid  to  make  the 
purchase. 

The  figures  of  the  table  show  that  the  wealth  which 
is  taxed  is  four  hundred  and  forty-one  times  the 
amount  of  the  original  purchase  money.  More  than 
this,  the  splendid  courage  and  energy  shown  in  the 
development  of  the  territory,  and  the  quality  of  the 
citizens  whom  its  opportunities  have  added  to  our 
country,  represent  a  value  which  is  beyond  price. 
1  Included  in  part  in  the  Purchase. 


INDEX 


Air  gun,  117. 

Alabama,  12. 

Allen,  Paul,  109. 

American  Fur  Company,  223, 

227. 
American      Philosophical 

Society    raises    funds    for 

exploration  of  West,  100. 
Annapolis,  N.  S.,  17. 
Antelope,  124. 

Arikara  Indians,  127, 190,  229. 
Arkansas,  205,  242 ;  statistics 

of,  300. 

Arkansas  River,  27,  201,  203. 
Ashley,  William  H.,  229. 
Astor,  John  Jacob,  223,  220. 
Astoria,  223,  227,  228,  229. 
Atchison,  Topeka,  and  Santa 

re"  Railroad,  279. 

Baker's  Bay,  159. 
Bannock  City,  179. 
Barbe"-Marbois,  71,  73,  77. 
Basel,  Treaty  of,  56. 
Baths,  Indian,  154. 
Beacon  Rock,  164. 
Bears,  133-135,  168,  182. 


Beaver    County,    Missouri, 

179. 

Bent's  Fort,  216. 
Biddle,  Nicholas,  109. 
Bienville  d'Iberville,  35. 
Big  Belt  Mountains,  143. 
Big  Dry  River,  135. 
Big  Horn  River,  181,  234. 
Big  White.  186,  189. 
Biloxi,  French  colony  at,  35. 
Bitter  Root  Mountains,  147, 

151. 

Blackbird,  117. 
Blount,  Senator,  57. 
Bonaparte.  Lucien  and  Joseph, 

protest  against  the  cession, 

74. 

Bonneville,  Captain,  explora- 
tions of.  233. 
Brackenridge,  H.  M.,  232. 
Bradbury,  John,  232. 
"Brant"  (wild  geese),  132. 
Buffalo,     8,     129,    224,    263; 

great  herds  seen  by  Lewis 

and  Clark,  182. 
"Bullion  theory,"  18. 
Burr's  conspiracy.  93. 


339 


340 


LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 


Cabeza  de  Vaca,  captivity  of, 
among  the  Indians,  0-9. 

California,  235,  236  ;  trail,  220. 

Camp  Disappointment,  173. 

Canadian  River,  206. 

Canoes  made  from  buffalo 
skins,  184. 

Canon  City,  205. 

Carrington,  Colonel  Henry, 
249. 

Carver,  Jonathan,  attempts  to 
cross  the  continent,  42. 

Catlin,  George,  232. 

Cattle  raising,  264. 

Cavelier,  Robert.   SeeLaSalle. 

Central  Pacific  Railroad,  268. 

Chaboneau,  interpreter  to 
Lewis  and  Clark,  129,  188. 

Charlevoix,  32. 

Cheyenne  Indians.  190. 

Chicago  Ship  Canal,  243. 

Chickasaw  Bluffs,  12,  29. 

"  Chisshetaw  "  Creek,  127. 

Chopunnish  (Xez  Perce) 
Indians,  152,  168. 

Cibola,  Seven  Cities  of.  9,  10. 

Civil  War,  importance  of  the 
Mississippi  in,  274-276. 

Claiborne,  William.  88,  89. 

Clark,  Captain  William:  early 
life,  102  (note) ;  appointed 
to  joint  command  with  Cap- 
tain Lewis,  101 ;  offers  to 
lead  Mandans  against  Sioux, 
129;  makes  survey  of  Falls 
of  the  Missouri,  141 ;  saves 


Indian  woman  from  cloud- 
burst, 142 ;  trades  his  sword 
for  a  horse,  166;  explores 
the  Yellowstone,  178;  grant 
of  land  to,  193;  later  life, 
193. 

Clark's  River,  178. 

Clearwater  River,  153,  155. 

Colbert  (i.e.  Mississippi)  River, 
29. 

Coldwater  Creek,  112,  192. 

Colonial  acquisition,  problems 
involved  in,  80. 

Colorado,  Pike  in,  203 ;  statis- 
tics of,  303. 

Colorado  River,  235. 

Colter,  John,  187. 

Columbia  River,  44,  153,  155, 
228,  235;  Gray's  discovery 
of,  43. 

Company  of  the  West.  36. 

Constitution  of  the  United 
States  and  the  Purchase,  80, 
82,  83. 

Cooke,  Colonel  St.  George,  248. 

Coronado,  Francisco  Vasquez, 
search  of,  for  Quivira,  10. 

Cortes,  Hernando,  16. 

Cotton  gin,  244. 

Council  Bluffs,  117.  220. 

Council  Grove,  216. 

Cow  Creek,  138. 

Crozat,  Antoine,  obtains  trad- 
ing privileges,  36. 

Cruzatte,  140,  176. 

Cut-bank  River,  173. 


1^  DEX 


341 


Dakctas.  See  North  and 
South  Dakotas. 

Dalles  of  the  Columbia,  165. 

Daumont  de  Saint  Lusson, 
24. 

De  Soto,  Fernando,  explora- 
tions of,  12-10 ;  misses  Coro- 
nado,  14. 

Docampo,  12. 

Dodge  City,  210. 

Dog-flesh  diet,  Lewis  and 
Clark's  party  on,  107. 

Drewyer  (one  of  Lewis  and 
Clark's  men),  172. 

Du  Bois  River,  111. 

Echeloot  Indians,  150. 

Elk  hunting,  170. 

Erie  Canal,  opening  of,  affects 
commerce  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, 244. 

Espiritu  Santo,  Rio  de  (the 
Mississippi),  discovered  by 
Pineda.  0. 

Estevanico.  10. 

Expansion  of  theUnited  States, 
47.  48,  05,  81-84,  241-244, 
281-283. 

Farming,  development  of,  274, 
284. 

Federalists  oppose  the  Pur- 
chase. 80. 

Fields  (one  of  Lewis  and 
Clark's  men),  174. 

Fish  catching,  118. 


Flat-headed  Indians,  150. 

Florida,  West,  annexed  to  the 
United  States,  79. 

Floridas,  England  contem- 
plates seizure  of,  55  ;  United 
States  seeks  to  acquire,  0!) ; 
not  included  by  Spain  in  the 
cession  to  France,  09,  78. 

Floyd,  Sergeant,  119. 

Forsyth,  Colonel  G.  A.,  249. 

Fiu-t  Bridger,  2i~. 

Fort  Hall,  220,  247. 

Fort  Kearny.  247,  249. 

Fort  Laramie,  220,  247. 

Fort  Leavenworth,  247,  274. 

Fort  Smith,  221. 

Fort  Vancouver,  231. 

Fort  Walla- Walla,  231. 

Fox  River,  20. 

France,  cedes  Louisiana  to 
Spain,  40 ;  endeavors  to  re- 
gain Louisiana,  54-50  ;  suc- 
ceeds, 58.  59. 

Franklin  on  the  control  of  the 
Mississippi,  05. 

Fre'mont,  J.  C..  234.  275. 

French  exploration  in  Louisi- 
ana, 21-33. 

French  settlement  in  Louisi- 
ana, 34-39. 

Fur  trade,  39,  102.  221.  227. 

Fur  traders,  112,  113.  130,  177, 
184,  191. 

Gallatin  River.  144. 
Gasconade,  191. 


342 


LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 


Gass,  Patrick,  119. 

Geese,  manner  of  nesting,  132. 

Genet,  E.  C.,  French  minister 
to  United  States,  55;  foments 
trouble  in  the  West,  56 ;  re- 
called, 56. 

Georgia,  12. 

Godoy,  Manuel,  51,  60. 

Gopher,  161. 

Grape  Creek,  206. 

Gravelines,  191. 

Gray,  Captain  Robert,  dis- 
covers the  Columbia  River, 
43. 

Gray's  Bay,  159. 

Great  Bend,  Kansas,  203. 

Great  Lakes  a  highway  for 
exploration,  210. 

Great  Platte  River,  116. 

Great  Salt  Lake,  230,  235. 

Green  Bay,  21,  26. 

Green  River,  230,  233,  234. 

Hamilton,    Alexander,    urges 

acquisition  of  Floridas  and 

Louisiana,  65. 
Heart  River,  127. 
Hennepin,  Father,  30. 
Horseflesh    diet,    Lewis    and 

Clark's  party  on,  152. 
Horses  round  up  a  herd   of 

buffalo,  181. 
Hubert,  31. 
Hudson   Bay   Company,  222, 

233. 
Humboldt  River,  234. 


Hunt,  William  Price,  expedi- 
tion of,  228. 

Iberville,  Pierre  Le  Moyne  d', 
31,  35. 

Idaho,  gold  found  in,  259. 

Independence,  Missouri,  218. 

Independence-Day  celebration 
of  Lewis  and  Clark,  178. 

Indian  cookery,  168. 

Indian  Territory,  11 ;  statis- 
tics of.  307. 

Indian  wars,  248. 

Indiana,  242. 

Indians,  154,  180,  183. 

Indians,  Arikara,  127, 190,229  ; 
Cheyenne,  190;  Echeloot, 
156;  Iowa,  113;  Kansas, 
114;  Mandan,  130;  Minne- 
taree,  174,  185 ;  Missouri, 
116,  118;  Xez  Perc(§,  152, 
178;  Omaha,  118;  Osage, 
113;  Ottoe,  116,  118;  Paw- 
nee, 116;  Shoshone,  148; 
Sioux,  121;  Skilloot,  166; 
Sokulk,  155  ;  Teton  Sioux, 
124.  190;  Yankton  Sioux, 
121,  122. 

Iowa.  309. 

Iowa  Indians,  309. 

Jacmel,  62. 
Jamestown,  Va.,  17. 
Jefferson,  Thomas  :  on  control 

of     the      Mississippi,      65 ; 

elected     President,     66; 


INDEX 


343 


appoints  commissioners  to 
purchase  New  Orleans,  69; 
considers  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana  unconstitutional, 
82 ;  his  accounts  of  Louisi- 
ana, 97,  98  ;  urges  Ledyard 
to  cross  the  continent,  99 ; 
persuades  Philosophical  So- 
ciety to  raise  funds  for  ex- 
ploration of  the  West,  100  ; 
selects  Lewis  and  Clark  to 
command  a  government  ex- 
pedition to  the  Pacific  coast, 
101. 

Jefferson  Eiver,  144,  179. 

Jerked  beef,  114. 

Joliet,  Louis,  25-27. 

Joutel,  30. 

Juan  dePadilla  (Fray),  11. 

Kansas,  11,  246,  271-273 ;  sta- 
tistics of,  312. 

Kansas  City,  218. 

Kansas  Indians,  114. 

Kansas  River,  114,  235. 

Kearny,  Colonel  Philip,  248. 

Kelley,  Hall  J.,  230. 

Kentucky,  48. 

Kooskooskee  (Clearwater) 
River,  153,  155,  167. 

La  Charette,  191. 

Laclede,  Pierre,  obtains  trad- 
ing rights  on  Missouri,  38 ; 
founds  St.  Louis,  38. 

Lake  Superior,  24,  32. 


Lake  Winnipeg,  32. 

Land  grants,  276-278. 

La  Salle,  Robert  Cavelier, 
Sieur  de :  early  life,  23  ;  de- 
scends the  Ohio,  23 ;  jour- 
neys to  mouth  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, 27 ;  murdered  at 
Matagorda  Bay,  30. 

Laussat,  86,  88. 

La  Verendrye  family,  33,  34. 

Law,  John,  36. 

Leadville,  205. 

Ledyard,  James,  99. 

Lee,  Jason  and  Daniel,  251. 

Leech  Lake,  200. 

Lemhi  River,  150. 

Le  Moyne  d'Iberville,  31,  35. 

Le  Sueur,  Pierre,  30. 

Lewis,  Captain  Meriwether : 
applies  for  first  expedition, 
100 ;  appointed  to  com- 
mand, 101 ;  biography,  101 
(note);  sees  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  138 ;  chased  by 
bears,  133,  141 ;  narrow 
escapes,  139,  141,  175;  fight 
withMinnetarees,  174;  acci- 
dentally shot,  176;  congres- 
sional grant  of  lands  to,  193 ; 
later  life,  194. 

Lewis  and  Clark :  appointed 
to  command  of  expedition, 
101 ;  preparations,  106  ;  com- 
position of  the  expedition, 
108 ;  journals  of  the  expe- 
dition, 109 ;  start  from  the 


344 


LOUISIANA  PUKCHASE 


Wood  Iliver,  111 ;  the  con- 
templated journey,  111 ; 
reach  the  Kansas  River, 
114  ;  reach  the  Great  Platte, 
116  ;  council  with  Pawnees, 
116;  in  South  Dakota,  120; 
council  with  the  Sioux,  121  ; 
trouble  with  the  Tetons, 
124  ;  enter  the  Ankara 
country,  126;  reach  the 
Mandan  Indians,  127;  leave 
the  Mandans,  132;  in  Mon- 
tana, 135 ;  reach  the  Mus- 
selshell  Iliver,  137  ;  in  sight 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
138;  at  Marias  River,  139; 
at  the  Great  Falls  of  the 
Missouri,  141 ;  reach  the 
Three  Forks  of  the  Missouri, 
144  ;  ascend  the  Jefferson, 
146 ;  at  source  of  the  Mis- 
souri, 147;  cross  the  Rockies, 
147;  among  the  Shoshonees, 
148 ;  scarcity  of  food,  151  ; 
among  the  Nez  Perc6 
Indians,  152 ;  reach  the 
Columbia,  155 ;  on  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific,  158 ; 
begin  the  return  journey, 
164 ;  among  the  Skilloot 
Indians,  166  ;  practice  med- 
icine, 166,  170  ;  scarcity  of 
stores,  169  ;  recross  the  Bit- 
ter Root  Mountains,  171; 
party  divided  to  explore 
Jefferson  and  Yellowstone 


rivers,  172  ;  reunited  at  Lit- 
tle Knife  River,  177  ;  again 
among  the  Mandans,  185 ; 
fresh  start  for  home,  189  ; 
reach  St.  Louis,  192. 

Lewis  River,  150. 

Lewiston,  167. 

Little  Knife  River,  177. 

Little  Manitou  Creek,  113. 

Livingston,  Robert  R.  :  learns 
of  the  cession  to  France,  67 ; 
commissioner  to  negotiate 
for  purchase  of  New  Orleans 
and  the  Floridas,  69 ;  his 
conversation  with  Talley- 
rand, 72 ;  a  signer  of  the 
Purchase  treaty,  77. 

"Long  Trail,"  264. 

Louis  XIV,  sanctions  Missis- 
sippi Colony,  35 ;  grants 
trading  privileges  to  Crozat, 
36. 

Louisiana :  Spanish  explo- 
ration in ;  French  explora- 
tion in  ;  French  settlement 
of ;  ceded  to  Spain,  40 ; 
England  contemplates  inva- 
sion of,  in  1790,  55  ;  in  1797, 
56  ;  retrocession  to  France, 
58,  59 ;  causes  invoking 
American  acquisition,  47- 
52";  dangers"  from~"FrerTcli 
occupation,  54  ;  Napoleon 
plans  French  occupation, 
59  ;  his  plans  frustrated  by 
Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  63; 


INDEX 


345 


he  decides  to  sell  Louisiana 
to  the  United  States,  73; 
Talleyrand  offers  the  terri- 
tory to  Livingston,  72 ; 
treaty  of  cession  signed,  77 ; 
text  of  treaty  of  cession, 
287  ;  cost  of  the  Purchase, 
79 ;  how  the  news  of  the 
Purchase  was  received,  80 ; 
Constitutional  questions 
raised,  82,  83  ;  formal  trans- 
fer to  France,  8(5 ;  formal 
transfer  to  the  United 
States,  88 ;  divided  into 
Territory  of  Orleans  and 
District  of  Louisiana,  90 ; 
form  of  temporary  govern- 
ment of,  84  ;  ignorance  re- 
garding, at  time  of  pur- 
chase, 97-99  ;  influence  of 
water  ways  on  development 
of,  210  ;  railroad  as  a  factor 
of  development,  280 ;  statis- 
tics of  the  state,  297. 

Mackenzie.  Alexander,  42, 
148. 

Mackinac  island,  29. 

Mackinaw  Company,  223. 

M'Neal.  172. 

Madison,  James,  on  impor- 
tance of  the  Mississippi,  215. 

Madison  Uiver.  144,  179. 

Maha  (Omaha)  Indians,  118. 

Mandan  Indians,  33. 

Marcos  de  Nizza,  Frav,  9. 


Marias  River,  139-140,  173. 

Marquette,  Father,  25-27. 

Matagorda  Bay,  30. 

Maximilian,  Prince  of  Wied, 
232. 

Mendoza,  Antonio  de,  10. 

Meriwether's  Bay,  160. 

Mexican  War,  235,  245. 

Michaux,  Andre",  101. 

Michillimackinac,  29. 

MilkKiver,  135. 

Mills,  Robert,  267. 

Mining  in  the  Purchase,  257. 

Minnesota,  30,  274;  statistics 
of,  316. 

Minnetaree  Indians,  174,  185. 

Missionary  explorers,  250- 
254. 

Mississippi  Bubble,  36. 

Mississippi  Company,  36. 

Mississippi  River:  discovered 
by  Pineda,  6 ;  reached  by 
De  Soto,  12  ;  descended  by 
La  Salle,  27 ;  Le  Sueur's 
journey  on,  30  ;  explored  by 
Joliet  and  Marquette,  25-27 ; 
known  as  river  Colbert,  29; 
claims  of  European  nations 
to  valley  of,  34  ;  under 
Spanish  control,  41 ;  Span- 
ish settlements  on,  52 ; 
Spanish  authorities  close 
navigation  of.  51  ;  impor- 
tance of,  to  the  United 
States.  64-65,  215;  Pike's 
search  for  head  waters  of, 


346 


LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 


200;  commerce  affected  by 
the  Erie  Canal,  244  ;  in  the 
Civil  War,  274-276. 

Missoula  County,  Mont.,  179. 

Missouri,  270 ;  statistics  of, 
320. 

Missouri  Fur  Company,  223. 

Missouri  River:  211 ;  Iberville 
and  Hubert  propose  explo- 
ration of,  31 ;  discovery  of 
the  Great  Falls  of,  140; 
Lewis  at  the  head  waters 
of,  147  ;  Lewis  and  Clark's 
journey  up  the,  111-147. 

Moniteau  Creek,  113. 

Monroe,  James,  commissioner 
for  purchase  of  New  Orleans 
and  the  Floridas,  69,  76. 

Montana,  257 ;  statistics  of, 
323. 

Morales,  Spanish  intendant  at 
New  Orleans,  68. 

Moreau  Creek,  113. 

Mormons,  248. 

Mosco£o.  Luis  de,  15. 

Mt.  Hood,  155,  164. 

Mt.  Jefferson.  164. 

Mt.  Rainier,  164. 

Mt.  Regnier,  164. 

Mt.  St.  Helens,  158,  164. 

Multnomah  River,  158,  164. 

Musselshell  River,  137. 

Napoleon  I,  plans  French 
occupation  of  Louisiana, 
60  ;  the  war  in  San  Domingo 


frustrates  his  intention,  63  ; 
determines  to  sell  Louisiana, 
73 ;  quarrel  with  his  broth- 
ers, 74  ;  criticism  of  his  action 
in  regard  to  Louisiana,  75. 

Nebraska,  271,  273;  statistics 
of,  325. 

Netul  River,  160. 

Nevada,  mining  in,  257. 

New  England  Federalists  op- 
pose the  admission  of  Lou- 
isiana, 83. 

New  Mexico,  10. 

New  Orleans :  founded,  35  ; 
description  of,  under  Span- 
ish occupation,  53  ;  Spanish 
customs  regulations  at,  50 ; 
American  efforts  to  acquire, 
69  ;  growth  of,  245. 

New  Orleans,  battle  of,  92. 

Nez  Perc<5  Indians,  152,  168. 

Nicollet,  J.  N.,232. 

Nicollet,  Jean,  21. 

North  Dakota,  328. 

Northern  Pacific  Railroad, 
278,  279. 

Northwest  Fur  Company,  223. 

Northwest  territory,  244. 

Nuttall,  Thomas,  232. 

Ohio,  242. 

Ohio  River,  29,  210. 

Oil  Creek,  205. 

Oklahoma,  330. 

Omaha  Indians,  118. 

Ordway,  Sergeant,  176.  179. 


INDEX 


347 


Oregon,  44,  233. 
Oregon  trail,  218. 
Orleans  territory,  90. 
Osage  Indians,  113. 
Osage  River,  112. 
Overland  trail,  220. 

Pacific  Fur  Company,  227. 
Panama  Railroad,  256. 
Parker,  Samuel,  251. 
Pawnee  Indians,  116. 
Pemmican,  125. 
Perclido  River,  78. 
Pierre's  Hole,  Idaho,  231. 
Pike,  Zebulon  M.,  199,    200- 

207. 

Pike's  Peak,  203,  257. 
Pineda,  Alonzo  de,  6. 
Pioneer,  the  American,  49. 
Pipestone  quarry,  119. 
Pitt,  William.  55. 
Pizarro,  Francisco  de,  16. 
Platte  River,  191,  233,  235. 
Plymouth,  17. 
"Pony  express,"  259-263. 
Poplar  River,  135. 
Porcupine  River,  135. 
Port  Royal,  17. 
Powell,  Captain  James,  249. 
Prairie  dog,  123. 
Pryor,  Sergeant,  121,  180,  183. 
Pueblo,  Col.,  203. 

Quamash,  152. 

Quivira,  legendary  city  of,  10. 

Quivira  Indians,  11. 


Radisson,  Pierre,  222. 

Railroads,  transcontinental, 
266-269,  274,  278-280. 

Raton  Pass,  216. 

Red  River,  8,  15,  206. 

Right  of  deposit,  51,  52,  68. 

Rio  Grande,  206. 

Rivers,  influence  of,  on  devel- 
opment of  the  Purchase,  210. 

Rocky  Mountains,  34,  42,  138, 
144. 

Rocky  Mountain  Fur  Com- 
pany, 223,  229. 

Rupert,  Prince,  222. 

Sacajawea,  129,  132,  142,  145, 
149,  168,  179,  180,  188. 

St.  Augustine,  17. 

St.  Charles,  Mo.,  112,  192. 

St.  Joseph,  Mo..  220,  259. 

St.  Louis,  38,  106,  192,  246, 
247,  223,  242,  243. 

St.  Louis  (or  Ohio)  River,  29. 

Saint  Lusson,  Daumontde,  24. 

Salmon,  148,  150,  154,  155. 

Salmon  River,  150. 

San  Domingo,  French  cam- 
paign in,  60-63. 

Sangre  de  Cristo  Mountains, 
206. 

San  Joaquiu  River.  234. 

Santa  Fe\  N.  M..  20. 

Santa  Fe"  trail,  215. 

Seven  cities  of  Cibola,  9,  10. 

Shahakas,  186. 

Shannon,  183. 


348 


LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 


Shoshone  Indians,  148. 

Sioux  Indians,  121-126,  249. 

Skilloot  Indians,  106. 

Slavery,  question  of,  within 
the  Purchase,  270-274. 

Smet,  Father  de,  250. 

Snake  River,  153,  155. 

Snakes,  113. 

Sokulk  Indians,  155. 

Soldier,  the,  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  West,  246-250. 

Soto,  Fernando  de,  12-16. 

South  Dakota,  120,  333. 

South  Pass,  233-235. 

South  Platte,  205. 

Spain,  acquires  Louisiana,  40  ; 
retrocedes  the  territory  to 
France,  58,  59,  67. 

Spanish  American  possessions 
at  end  of  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, 52. 

Spanish  explorations  -within 
the  Purchase,  3-20. 

Spirit  Mound,  120. 

Steamboats  upon  the  Missis- 
sippi, 243. 

Sulphur  springs  in  Montana, 
179. 

Sunflowers,  143. 

Sutler's  Fort,  235. 

Talleyrand,  endeavors  to  get 
Louisiana  for  France,  57 ; 
denies  French  acquisition  of 
Louisiana,  67;  seeks  to  limit 
American  expansion,  59. 


Tennessee,  48. 

Teton  Basin,  231. 

Teton  Indians,  124,  190. 

Texas,  4,  8. 

Tonty,  29,  30. 

Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  60-63. 

Townsend,  J.  K.,  232. 

Trails,  Santa  Fe,  215;  Oregon, 

218 ;  Overland,  220. 
Trappers,  123. 
Traveler's  Kest  Creek,  178. 
Truckee  River,  220. 

Union  Pacific  Railroad,  268- 

269,  278. 
United  States,  expansion  of, 

47,  48,  65,  81-84,  241-244, 

281-283. 
Utah,  248,  257. 

Vaca,  Cabeza  de,  6-9. 
Vancouver,  43. 
Velasquez,  Diego,  6. 
Violin  playing,  166. 

Wabashas,  112. 

Waiilatpu  (Walla  Walla),  251. 

Walla  Walla,  251. 

Washington  on  the  control  of 
the  Mississippi,  65. 

Water  ways,  influence  of,  upon 
development  of  the  West, 
210. 

Weahkoonut,  167. 

Western  exploration,  litera- 
ture of,  232,  237. 


349 


West  Florida,  79. 

Western  independence  of  East- 
ern capital,  284. 

Westport,  Mo.,  218. 

Whitman,  Marcus.  251,  252. 

Whitney,  Asa,  267. 

Wilkinson,  General  James,  88, 
94,  199,  201,  207. 

Willamette  Kiver,  158,  164. 

Wind  Kiver  Mountains,  235. 

Windsor,  183. 

Wiunebago  Indians,  22. 


Wisconsin  River,  21, 22, 26,210. 
Wood  (Du  Bois)  River,  111. 
Wooden    houses    among    the 

Echeloot  Indians,  156. 
Wyeth,  Nathaniel  J.,  230. 
Wyoming,  335. 

Yankton  Indians,  121,  122. 
Yellowstone  River,  176,  181, 
230. 

Zuiii  Indians,  10. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


JOL  1 


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A   001413321    9 


UNIVERSITY  dr  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY1  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

•         Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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LDiURL  ^ 


tD/URL 


j    1990 

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3 115800527  3320 


